Avatar: Restart
by iMachine
Summary: After the hundred year war, firebenders try to ignite another. With devious plans, their way of restarting the war is more complex and like no other. However, the spotlight moves on to new heroes. Four teenagers who will learn and travel the world. Added 7 new chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1- The Meeting**

It was months after Avatar Aang had ended the war and everyone could now live together in harmony. Less trouble, less fear, and less war were given to people. Zuko was now fire lord and Team Avatar earned their rightful ranks. The Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Water Tribes could live without struggle and Zuko and Aang would do everything in their power to try and make the world a better place. This was going to be a huge part in history and hopefully, it would revolutionize the world. It already had.

People had said that it was impossible that war would perish. In this situation, I guess you could say it were true. People still had memories and revengeful thoughts about the war but they tried to keep it on the bright side. The thing that everyone worried most about was the Fire Nation and from this point on, they were correct. Not to be prejudice or bias, but it was going to be pretty hard for the Fire Nation to stray from their old ways.

News had been going around about there being a group of firebenders attempting to restart another revolution of their own but just with the same intents as Ozai. The main problem is that there are three main leaders of the team said to be running this organization and they are all from the Fire Nation. They call themselves _The Solar Ashes._ The leaders of the Solar Ashes are two firebending masters that started this rebellion and plan to take down whoever stops them. Their main goal is to build an organization of other Fire Nation Civilians who also think this of a good idea. These civilians are mostly people who are skilled in firebending or anything else that is well enough to contribute. Fire Lord Zuko did everything in his power to get these firebenders captured, but always got disappointing news of failure. So what he did was he got a few allies of his own to gather information of people who use to be close to these villains. Surprisingly, it helped tons.

The first leader was a girl named Kai, a girl who is very talented in firebending and is skilled with her weapons, dual sais. She is suspected to be in her 20's and has brown hair and deep grey, brownish eyes that lit golden in the sun.

Second was Cheng, a young Fire Nation assassin whom many have heard about but not seen. Some even suspected he was dead. He was known to have joined the Fire Nation Military which means he could possibly be skilled in many things. He has two dual swords, making him obviously skilled in swordsmanship. He has brown hair and brown eyes.

The third and final was Kenji, He isn't a leader but plays a large role in this triad. He is a very dangerous firebender and Fire Nation threat. He is known for all of his crimes and is a cold blooded killer who doesn't speak very often. He has black hair, gold eyes, and is the bulkiest and tallest of them all. The very most important fact is that he wouldn't hesitate to attack an innocent by passer...or kill them.

Avatar Aang and his team had done enough and played their part. It was too disappointing for them to head right back into this. Now, since Zuko was now Fire Lord, it was time for him to play his part and give the spotlight to new heroes. Zuko sent a letter out to each of the Nations looking for rightful people who could possibly be chosen to accept this mission. The process of this happening was that the letter was first sent to the Nation's leader, and sent to the greatest option that leader had in mind. However, each of these leaders thought so differently. The reward of this task was to have rightful ranks and money and possibly a rightful place in history, but promises couldn't be made since they were so easy to be broken. Letters were sent all over the world and the only thing to do now was to wait patiently.

In the Earth Kingdom, resting in an alley was a young man named Hiroshi. Although it was untold, but quite evident; he had a disturbing past. Hiroshi is a boy who lives in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se—homeless actually. He had dark brown eyes and brown hair. He didn't really stand out from people, but he didn't ever expect himself to. Hiroshi was around the age of 18 and was a wanderer who did nothing but "wander" Earth Kingdom alone. He's an earthbender and is very skilled at it, having a variety of different moves he learned himself from simple street earthbending. He carries small marbles of rocks in a sack strapped to his pocket just in case he has no contact with earth. Better safe than sorry.

While in the resting in the alley Hiroshi could hear crowds of people outside making rants on something, almost like a protest. The shouting woke him up which got him really cranky. He stood up and put his straw hat over his head to block the sun's rays. He poked his head out of the alley to see people going crazy over sheets of paper that flew through the air like doves. Out of the crowd, a paper fell towards him. He grabbed, slightly crushing it in his grip. Reading it, it was an invitation that Fire Lord Zuko had sent out. Strangely, the Earth King thought it was okay to make this a public announcement.

Hiroshi continued to read the rest of the letter revealing that whoever succeeds in this mission will own a rightful rank and get money. After reading that, Hiroshi did a smirk to the thought of bathing in riches. He watched everyone else fight and argue about who would be accepted. He himself went on his own journey to the Upper Ring to speak to the Earth King so things would be settled from there.

In the Northern Water Tribe was a young boy named Juniperus who is skilled in waterbending and was even ranked a beginner waterbending master. He was tall and slightly thin and was 16 years old of age. He was a tan like almost every other Water Tribe person, but a few tones darker, with hazel eyes. He had shaved hair, but it grew to the point where you could see the small tips beginning to curl out of his scalp.

After a long day of working as a performer Juniperus went home to relax. He walked into the house and looked at the mail that had come in. It was assigned to his mother, saying 'To Pat' on the front. Juniperus got a bad feeling his gut, and followed his instinct to open it. Out of curiosity, Juniperus opened it and read it. It spoke about how Fire Lord Zuko requested a healer. Juniperus snuck the letter into his room and removed his mother's name replacing it on with his own. He took the letter to the chief and waited from things to work from there only praying nothing would be suspected and lead toward penalization.

Then there was Lloyd. Lloyd was a teenage boy who was born into the Fire Nation. He lives in a high class family and is a very great Firebender. He has brown hair and golden eyes and is skilled in swordsmanship. Since he was already in a high class family, it was very simple for him to enter the mission and was accepted right away.

There was only one more invitation that had to be accepted in order to fill in all spots. The only thing left to do was wait.

Ultimately, it had turned out that both Juniperus and Hiroshi had been accepted into taking the offer of capturing the Firebenders. Now, the fire nation boats were sailing in from picking up the invitees. Juniperus was on the boat's deck looking off unto the water, seeing his reflection ripple with the waves from the sailing boat. He took in a deep breath and let it out smelling the fresh beach air. Juniperus looked at the island coming closer into view, "Ember Island," he exclaimed lowly to himself.

He looked at the scroll he was given. On the scroll it listed to whom he would be accompanied with on this journey. He read the name aloud to himself, "Sumi, Hiroshi, and Lloyd…" On the sides were drawings of each of the individuals, but poorly drawn at that. Looking at the sailor, he gave him a smile as he sailed the boat unto the dock. Juniperus walked off the boat, unto the dock and put his empty water skin unto his back. The water skin was very large and reached across from his left shoulder to his right hip. He held his luggage in one hand and was led by a servant who was on the dock waiting for each of the invitees, "My name is Joben. I will be your guardian throughout this trip." He said bowing. Joben led Juniperus to a nearby inn. The inn was like a small house and Juniperus saw it as a beautiful place compared to the small freezing houses back at home.

He walked in and bowed "Thank you, Joben."

"My honor," he said backing out, "I have to go wait for the others now," he said closing the door behind him.

Hiroshi was on the boat's deck asleep and snoring loudly. As the ship set sail the captain yelled loudly, "Land ahoy!" With the noise interrupting Hiroshi's good sleep, he woke up panicked. He looked around and noticed that the ship was immobile and that he had reached Ember Island, "Hmm, Fire Nation territory," he mumbled to himself in disbelief. He walked on the deck and walked quite quickly to Joben. He was ready to go back to sleep.

"Hello, I am Joben, I will be your—" before having a chance to complete his sentence, Hiroshi walked past him as if he didn't even exist.

"Where do I have to go…?" Hiroshi asked, a little past Joben, so unaware of where he was.

Joben nodded, "Follow me," he said leading Hiroshi to the inn Juniperus was in.

Once Hiroshi walked inside, he looked up and saw a boy who was obviously a Water Tribe civilian. Hiroshi took out his paper which listed the people's names he would be working with, "Are you...J-Jun-i-rus-per?" he said having a hard time and not even caring.

Juniperus forced a laughed and looked at him. To be honest, it annoyed Juniperus on how many people had gotten his name wrong. It wasn't that hard. "It's Juniperus, call me Juniper" Juniperus extended his arm out for a hand shake in order to give a proper greeting. Hiroshi looked down at Juniperus's arm and walked right past him towards the window that was in the back of the room.

"Juniper, huh?" He said before he rested by a nearby window sill and looked out the window, "Pretty weird name you got there. Sounds like a girl's name. Well, I'm Hiroshi." He said greeting Juniper in his manner.

Juniper chuckled quite uncomfortably only sealing in something unpleasant that he wanted to say. He nervously scratch his arm, "Heh, blame my mom. Nice to meet you, Hiroshi."

From the outside Juniper and Hiroshi could see Joben bringing back another person, another male addition to the group. In the back of Hiroshi's head, he was guessing that the boy was a firebender, just by the looks of his clothing, and physical traits; Brown here and gold colored eyes that could be spotted a mile away. As Joden walked in the room, the teenage boy followed right after.

"We have someone new," Joden introduced. "Say hello to Lloyd."

Lloyd walked in the inn and waved lightly at both of them. He walked in and put his luggage down on a bed no one had seemed to claim yet. He was pretty nervous because didn't even know these people. Not to mention, the place wasn't even in competition with his room. He didn't feel quite comfortable. The bed was stiff and firm, and the springs were so noisy. So to kill time he sat unto his bed and unpacked some of his luggage and turned away from the other members

Juniper looked at both of them and realized that were both very boring in fact. He scoffed and walked towards the exit, "I'll be back," he notified, "I'm going to fill up my water skin." Not even waiting for a reply that he knew he wasn't going to get, he closed the door behind him and walked towards the ocean nearby. He turned his water skin unto his front and opened the cap where the water's only entrance would be. Lifting out his arms, he used his abilities to waterbend the water into his empty skin. He watched as it was filling up with fresh water. The more water, the heavier it got. While doing that, he watched as all of the other Fire Nation people had fun swimming in the water and playing games on the beach. Some gave him awkward looks, but he tried his hardest to ignore it.

Of course the majority was Fire Nation, and there were very little people from other nations because people were still so cautious. Other than that, he could see another boat come unto the shore. The boat looked just like the one he and Hiroshi had come off of. Within minutes, off the boat came a girl with short black wavy hair that reached a little below her shoulders. She was pretty, and looked like she was from the Water Tribe. From what Juniper remembered, it was the last person on the list to arrive. After Juniper finished filling his water skin he placed it back unto his back. He could hear the water in the skin swish around, which was a comforting noise to him for some strange reason.

For the last time Joben passed by the inn one more time, making a quick stop at Juniper, "Juniperus, this is Sumi. She is the last addition to the group and is from the Water Tribe just as you are. She isn't a better, but has certified training with the Kyoshi Warriors." When Joben spoke, sounded similar to a tone that sounded like he has practiced these lines. Not to mention, Joben looked pretty exhausted. Juniper waved and smiled at her, "Hey, nice to meet you," he said extending his arm for a handshake.

Sumi smiled and shook his hand, "I'm Sumi."

"Juniper, nice to meet you," he kindly said shortly before he caught the expression on her face after hearing his name. "Which water tribe are you from?" Juniper said getting up and walking with Joben and Sumi. She nodded, "Southern." Juniperus then looked forward in understanding. He had never seen her before.

"So when do we get started?" Sumi asked. To Juniper's shock, she has asked it with much enthusiasm. She looked up at Juniper and back at her footsteps she deliberately tried to leave in the sand.

"I'm not sure but everyone is already here," he added looking at Hiroshi through the window. Sumi looked down at her invitation paper and back at another paper that the names,

"Am I the only girl here?" she said simply just by reading the names.

He chuckled softly to himself, "Yeah." When Sumi saw Juniper smile, she couldn't help but notice how bright and straight his teeth were. The funny thing about it was that it amazed her for some reason. Once they reached inside the inn they set up all of their things and settled into their beds, waiting for their mission to start.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2- Clash**

Cheng, a firebender, and a proud one at that, walked through the sands of Ember Island's beach. However, instead of enjoying the scenery like everyone else, he searched high an know for something, or maybe someone. Cheng had a full head of brown hair and had golden brown eyes. His skin was tan which was very distinctive about it, and girls loved that about Cheng. He was 17 years old and was a member of the Solar Ashes as well. Surprisingly, he was a general, which wasn't so common for people his age. However, despite being a teenager, he sure did act like an adult...in some cases. Don't get him wrong though, he still has his "teenage moments." He was dressed in regular dark red fire nation clothing. He had a black vest with a red short sleeved shirt underneath, with long dark red pants and brown boots with a golden colored waist band. Along his back; he had too scabbards hiding his dual swords which strapped tightly across his chest making an X.

He walked and looked at the various houses and cabins surrounding the beach. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a scroll. Looking at the scroll, it was a letter he had received from Kai, his teammate. "Where did Kai want to meet up?" he said to himself as he reread the letter in his mind. It read:

"_Cheng, Meet me at a small house on the beach, you can't miss it. If you do, then you're obviously clueless. Please be on time this time you nitwit. I don't have patience to wait for you like last time_

_-Kai"_

Cheng looked around putting his palm over his eyes to block it from the sun. Once his eyes met with a small cabin nearby, he walked over to it.

Back at the inn, Lloyd thought it was the perfect time to actually get to know these guys. He looked at his teammates and back at the note that had each of their names. He thought that if he were going to be working with these people, the least he could do it get to know their names, "Are you Juni-ni-ni-Juniperus?" he asked with a successful pronunciation.

Juniper nodded and smiled at his perfect attempt, "Yes, I am. Just call me Juniper," he insisted. Afterward, while Lloyd got to know everyone else, Juniper walked back outside and viewed the scenery of the beach. He could use another breath of warm fresh air, something he wasn't use to.

Upon talking with the others, a body interrupted the atmosphere by entering the doorway. The group turned around to see if Juniper had returned, but they were dead wrong. It was someone whom they have never seen before. Lloyd was quite surprised because he didn't expect any more members, let alone someone from the Fire Nation. No one did,

"Can we help you?" Lloyd asked trying to be helpful.

Cheng did nothing but shake in his footsteps. Sumi found the fellow man's reactions weird before something caught her eye. Looking over to a paper on the bed, the invitation had sketches of the captives they were supposed to capture and one looked very similar to the man who has just entered the room. It was Cheng.

Cheng walked backwards, "No, no. I—uh, just walked into the wrong place that's all," he said trying to avoid staying any longer. As he took a few steps back he heard a random call to his name,

"Hello, Cheng!" Sumi shouted.

"Why hello ther—oh…" Cheng sighed before realizing his idiotic move.

Sumi did a skilled flip over her bed and reached into her bag to grab her katana; she quickly fixed herself into a straight stance with her right arm armed and extended, "Found one!" she yelled.

Lloyd on the other hand smirked with excitement and at the impressive move of Sumi. He liked this girl already.

Sumi, Lloyd and Hiroshi walked closer to Cheng. He was outmatched and this mission was probably easier than they had thought. Cheng made a run for it outside of the inn and Hiroshi dashed after. Before fully making an escape, two large heaps of sand levitated in the view of Cheng preventing his escape. Sumi inched even closer to the guy with her Katana still pointed out, but her legs were slightly bend in order to root her footing much better "So where are your friends?" she asked.

From where Juniper was, he was still outside enjoying the view until he heard two large rumbles. Turning around, he could already see the group in view battling someone. Juniper ran to the scene and slid in the sand after stopping. Cheng knew with the right plans and diversion; he could take these clowns on. Unfortunately, he spotted a waterbender on the very sidelines. His biggest mistake would be to mess with this waterbender since they were at a beach with all this water. So what he did was just pray to the very spirits, which guided him, to make it out alive.

From behind, Kai walked in. Her skin was pale and her lips were small and she had wide eyes. She had short dark hair, and her bangs were swept to the side and were caught by a golden barrette. Her hairs length was up to her shoulder and rode up to the back almost like a bomb cut. She wore her regular red beach clothing with a mini brick red coat. Her top was strapless and showed her stomach, while she wore a skirt with tights that reached her knees underneath. She was of average height and was a little shorter than Cheng, shoulder.

She looked at the group and her hands unto her hips. She scoffed, "Ah, so this is the group of misfits that's supposed to _capture_ us?" she asked without hesitation, knowing that she was giving her identity away.

Cheng, like an idiot, looked at Kai and thought this was a chance for them to work together. Cheng took his fists and shot out a fiery flame and took out his two dual swords, hidden in his scabbards, simultaneously. Hiroshi lifted his arms out in front, allowing the sand to rise and get hit by the flames. Pushing the sand over the flames caused the flames to be overwhelmed and washed them away.

Cheng cocked his head over and looked back at Kai, "Kai, anytime to jump in would be great."

Kai flipped her hair with a rather calm tone, "Hm. No, I'll just stay here to examine the fight," she said looking at him.

"Dear Spirits, if I weren't so occupied right now, you'd have so many volts of electricity going at you right now!"

Juniper was behind Cheng from when he had first come in. Cheng was facing Hiroshi and the others. Juniper looked over at a female who stood a couple of feet beside him. With his first too fingers erected, he used his water skin as a source of his power. A stream of water to rushed towards Kai and grabbed hold of her ankle. His natural intent was to pull her ankle and toss her into the sea water nearby.

"Well aren't you precious!" she sarcastically commented before cutting the connection of the water with a light stream of fire, "As long as the sun is up. _I_ have the upper hand!" she said with a look of triumph on her face.

"You may have the upper hand, but I _will_ defeat you." He said glaring into her glowing grey eyes. After that, Kai ran towards him with her fist covered in blazing flames. Juniper had allowed the water to coat and freeze around his fingertips, and used them as claws right before leaping into battle with her.

Hiroshi was putting in the most effort into fighting Cheng, while Lloyd and Sumi stood on the side for guidance. Hiroshi allowed a small thick wall of sand to build around Cheng. In an instant, the sand began to slowly sallow Cheng. He sunk into it slowly.

Cheng used his firebending abilities to power up one left arm and both legs. In an instant, he propelled like a glowing, hot spinning top and shot out of the ground. The sand around him had burst and flew in all directions. While in midair, he quickly shot a bolt of lightning at Juniper and landed safe on the sand.

While in the midst of battling; Kai saw the lighting rush towards them and did a quick backflip out of the way. Juniper looked over in shock to see the lighting shoot after him. He did a quick movement with his arm, allowing some water to levitate and freeze a partial barrier in front of him. The lighting hit the ice only causing enough cracks and exploded the ice, "Ugh!" he grunted, before flying back into the sand.

Cheng relaxed his body in accomplishment and sent a couple last waves of fire at the others. Sumi's shocked eyes reflected as she watched the flames fly at her, but it was blocked by a large wall of sand that shot from below. The flames collided with the sand that caused some sand to fly everywhere. The fire blasts were so strong; the group could feel the heat on the other side until it died out.

Cheng now had his chance, "Let's go Kai!" he shouted as he beam off to a medium sized boat that floated by the shore. It was owned by a mysterious captain who looked quite frightening. His eyes were brown, but only one was visible since his left eye was scarred shut.

"Oh shut up, I'm working on it!" Kai said walking over the body of Juniper. Juniper sat up and dusted some of sand off of his lap and hair and looked up at Kai. "We'll finish this later…" she said before letting the final word slip out as she climbed unto the boat, "…peasant."

"Go." she demanded at the sailor who watched Kai with an evident sign of fear. Kai pulled out two bags filled with money and threw them on the sailor. After that, the sailor sailed off as quickly as possible.

"What's your name?" Kai asked. It sounded more like a command coming from her though.

"Hade…" He the captain snarled back, trying not to show fright to a girl smaller than him.

"There's more money where that came from if you just do us one thing…" She said with quite an influencing tone.

Juniper's vision cleared up and right then and there, remembered the words that escaped Kai's mouth before making her exit. His face turned red and he gritted his teeth, "Peasant?" he repeated with furiousness. He stood up and clutched his fists rightly "Fire Nation scum!" He couldn't do anything at this point, but it couldn't hurt to try. Running unto the nearby pier that the Solar Ashes strayed from, he ran as fast as he could. Making a sudden stop by the very edge, he twisted his whole body, and threw his right arm up like a catapult. A medium sized wave roared through the water and shot towards the boat quickly.

Cheng and Kai did a technique; taking in five deep breaths and jumping by the sidelines of the boat. They simultaneously sent a large massive fiery blast from both of their fists. The flames quickly evaporated the water, making it die back to its regular form of sea water. Kai walked further to the back of the boat and smirked; another sign of her triumph.

Out of frustration, Juniper threw his arms down, causing water to splash to a great height in front of him. As the water fell back down, he stood there glaring at the boat sailing off. He could feel the blood boiling inside. His anger died once the point wasn't visible any longer, and he looked over at his new teammates. The two who seemed to be the most startled, was Lloyd and Sumi. Sumi had her scabbard attached to her right hip, and placed her katana right inside of it.

Juniper walked towards the group, "Are you guys okay…?" he asked with some sympathy.

Hiroshi and Sumi both nodded, "Just a few scratches. I hate early battles…" Hiroshi bickered while looking at his toned arm.

They all nodded, Lloyd looked at them, "We should be more careful,"

"Thanks captain obvious," Hiroshi rudely commented while looking at Lloyd with a blank stare.

Lloyd's face tensed a little, but he drew his attention away from Hiroshi.

Hiroshi walked between the group and spoke, "We should go searching for them…tonight," he stated with seriousness.

Sumi nodded at the demand and hoped her role could be a bit bigger this time. She thought it'd be good enough to brighten the mood. Besides, ever since she came, she seemed to be quite the amusing one, "It's kind of uncanny how we were sent to find them, but instead, they found us," she said smiling.

They all laughed, except for Hiroshi who gave a perplexed look.

They all walked back into inn while Joben stood at the doorway looking impressed, "You guys fought very well!" He complimented. Sumi thanked him and sat on the edge of her bed. She looked at the group in an awkward moment of silence.

Juniper thought that at a time like this, it'd be great to get a chance to socialize, "So, how old are you guys by the way?" he questioned, "I'm sixteen."

"Seventeen," Lloyd said only hoping he'd be the oldest.

In exhaustion, Sumi laid back on unto her bed, "I'm sixteen too." Two points for Lloyd so far.

Hiroshi sighed and rested on the dresser beside his bed, "I'm eighteen."

A loud buzzer rang in the ear of Lloyd as if he had answered the wrong question on a game show. Hiroshi was the eldest here, which meant what? That he would be leader? Not by a longshot. Lloyd wanted to prove that he was worthiest of the group to be leader and call the shots.

"So we're going to look for them tonight right?" Juniper asked.

However, Sumi stood up, "I say we go look for them right now."

The three boys were pretty impressed by how quickly she shot up with bravery. It was definitely faster than they ever would.

"Okay…but you do know that fire benders are their strongest during the afternoon right?" Lloyd stated.

Sumi thought for a moment, "But we outnumber them," she said at least _trying_ to sound like a tactical thinker, "You guys ready?" she said trying to boost up the confidence in the room.

Lloyd stood up and smiled, "Of course, I trained with the Fire Lord before, I guess you could say I'm practically his son," he said with a sort of bragging tone of voice. The rest of the group pretended to act like they were interested by didn't really care much. Just watching him, he recreated a moment of silence. Lloyd now felt out of place. He didn't know what exactly to say to these guys.

"Let's go already." Hiroshi said walking past all of them.

Cheng and Kai were far out into the sea, their next escape was unknown for now, but Kai did have another house back at Shu Jing. Cheng looked at Kai and spoke to her about meeting her earlier, "Um, Kai, next time you tell me to meet you somewhere, be more specific!" he blurted.

Kai rolled her eyes and sighed, "Ugh, It was the small house at the very top of the beach?" she said without a trace of care in her voice.

"I remember seeing that house…and it wasn't small. The ten others were though, including that inn!"

"It's the smallest house of all the houses I've ever had," she said with such boastfulness. Her positive charm was quickly driven away by the thought of the waterbender she faced. "Stupid peasant," She muttered taking off her wet brown boot and drying it. Her family was a long line of top famous military soldiers and she didn't even deserve any respect from that little snot "This is why his kind deserved to be wiped out in the Siege of the North, but _no_, Admiral Zhao just had to be an idiot." She put her fists unto her hips and stood by the captain, "Take us to Fire Fountain City, now! We need Kenji."

"Great now I have another pain to deal with…" Cheng muttered beside her.

Kai raised her voice, "What was that?" she said startling both him and the sailor.

Cheng coughed and cleared his throat, "Nothing…" The sun headed down and the firebenders could see it peeking over the hemisphere, where the rays enriched their power.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3- Troubles**

It had been a long wait since Cheng and Kai had reached Fire Fountain City. No one suspected anything strange or suspicious since the news about them had just gotten out. The three were in an alley, speaking amongst themselves.

"Nice to finally see you again Kenji," Cheng said to his partner whom they had just ran into at Fire Fountain City. Kenji was taller than all of them and probably stood around six feet tall. He was tall and built and looked like a guy who could overpower a bull. He used to be a prisoner at the boiling rock. Surprisingly, he made it out with a long time partner. He wore black martial arts pants, with a black sleeveless shirt that had gold linings. His hair was spiked back, and he had a scar that ran through his left eye. It was thin and ran vertically from his forehead to his cheek. However, Kenji didn't really speak. He just had his arms crossed and looked dead at Cheng. He picked Cheng up and hugged him tightly.

Cheng felt like his bones were being crushed and that if he didn't get an extra breath of oxygen, he'd die from lack of oxygen. He struggled to push off Kenji but failed. Kenji placed him down and looked at him with the same constant emotion he always had. Cheng felt limb and teetered side to side and crashed into a vase.

He quickly recovered and continued walking off with Kenji, but Kai stood far behind, not even moving. She was just watching the village that now slowly turned to mixed neighborhoods with different nations. It all made her sick.

"Well, is the heartless she-devil coming or is it just going to be me and Kenji?" Cheng insulted.

"Why yes. The she-devil is coming, you dumb-dumb!" she hissed.

Kenji opened his mouth and a deep roaring voice emerged from his throat, "What to do?" he said with his arms still folded. Cheng stood in shock; he always reacted this way when hearing Kenji's voice. It was similar to a raging sky bison.

"Create a resistance of course!" Kai shouted with joy. "My father knows many admirals who would love to overthrow that moron of a cow-hippo, Zuko," she said with much vanity, "If you guys know anyone who loved the intents of the war, speak up! We need everyone we can get…" she said with excitement.

Kenji spoke with more orders and commanded the team what to do, "Cheng, go east. Kai, go north. I'll go south." He said just walking off.

Cheng without hesitated nodded while Kai's walked behind Kenji and poked his back the felt like touching a boulder, "You can't tell me what to do! I nominate myself in charge of this group!" Kenji turned around and looked down at the girl who he could easily step on. He lifted his foot and slammed it unto the ground causing a large noise, "Kai, NORTH!" he shouted. The hair on her hair fluttered like she had hit a hurricane. Rolling her eyes, she walked off "Fine."

They all split into their positions and did as ordered.

Coincidentally, Juniper, Sumi, Hiroshi, and Lloyd were all in Fire Fountain city as well. It wasn't only a mission for the teammates outside the Fire Nation, but it was a tour too. They never had seen so much interesting landmarks and places. Except for Lloyd, he claimed to be wealthy enough that he had been everywhere in the Fire Nation.

Juniper then walked towards the Fire Fountain, which was a large statue of Ozai in the middle of the City. The fists and mouth of the statue, spat out flames. It was already under construction to be removed, but Juniper has the deepest urge to waterbend a stream or water and slice its legs to fall over, but that'd put people in danger.

Sumi walked next to Juniper and knew the exact thoughts that ran through his mind, because their faces were exactly the same; upset and bothered.

"Some still can't be trusted…" Juniper said under his breath after looking around at the Fire Nation civilians.

Lloyd had soon walked in afterward and overheard Juniper, "Agreed. People have to realize that the world is better off with peace," he said looking up at the statue alongside the two.

Sumi did a scoff of doubt, "Like that's ever going to happen."

Hiroshi walked beside the group after roaming around on his own, "What's it made of?" He said looking at the statue.

"I suppose metal." Sumi said.

Hiroshi cracked his knuckles and held his hands up. He took his palms and slowly closed them till they turned into a clawing like figure. Unfortunately, nothing happened. He had heard great stories of Toph Beifong using metalbending, but his attempt to do it wasn't even close.

Lloyd patted Hiroshi on the back afterward, "Nice try," he smirked. The group continuously spoke about the statue and other topics. Joben on the other hand stood behind and spoke to an old friend.

From the side, Cheng looked over at the group of teens that were all distracted by the Fire Fountain under construction. Cheng stuck his arm and brought it back like he were about to throw a ball the hardest he could. Powering up a flame, he threw his arm forward and a large ball of flame swam through the air and dropped down like a bomb.

Hiroshi leaped into action, and raised his arms allowing the fire to make impact with the lifted barrier of earth. The barrier cracked and exploded and shattered like glass, causing all the kids directly behind it to scream and go flying into different distances. Nearby civilians all ran in fear and horror and locked themselves into their houses. Joben on the other hand stood nearby as stood by the children wondering what had just happened. Joben's eyes searched the area until he saw a mysterious figure in the distance disappear into an alley

Being knocked out for quite a while, the children woke up in the middle of a city that was now partially bruised. It wasn't much, and probably about four or five houses were damaged. Juniper helped Sumi up, and Hiroshi did the same for Lloyd. They woke up pretty shocked by how much damage they could do already. Over one of the houses in the distant night, a house grew on fire.

The moon had just woken up, and Juniper felt rich with power. Sumi and Juniper split up and ran one way while Hiroshi and Lloyd ran the other to search for whoever committed such treason, "Meet back here!" Hiroshi commanded when running off.

While running, Sumi was in the lead. Looking back just to see if Juniper saw anyone, he bumped right into Sumi quite roughly.

"Ouch, why'd you stop running?" he questioned.

Looking at her shocked face, Sumi pointed up at large built man who stood over them. It was Kenji. Juniper and Sumi were startled as soon as he lifted his arms up and let out a battle cry. He slammed both arms on the ground allowing flames to burst from the impact, causing a dent and burn in the ground. Sumi watched Kenji in shock and pulled out her katana and prepared herself for a battle she thought could possibly be her last. As Kenji got ready to punch a fist of fire at her but his hand was pulled back by an overwhelming force of water. Kenji stumbled backwards and turned to see Juniper crouched in a waterbending stance. Kenji had the strongest hate for waterbenders, even more than Kai. He ran towards Juniper who did evasive dodges and ducks, "Find, whoa! The, ugh! Girl!" he said after every dodge he made.

Sumi nodded and ran through all depths of the city on her own. Running up and down, she encountered one called Kai. However, Kai found her. All of this was so unexpected, Sumi didn't know to react.

"Oh look what it is, another peasant." Kai said standing up straight with a confident body language.

Sumi tensed her eyes and looked at her, "What?" she double took.

Kai chuckled, "Did I stutter? I called you a peasant!" she repeated, "That sword isn't going to do you any good by the way." She said placing her hand up and forming a flame above it.

Sumi pulled out a retractable tool that soon afterward turned into shield. Something she had gotten as a souvenir from visiting and training at Kyoshi.

Kai watched her in disgust, "So you're a Kyoshi warrior?"

"No, just a water tribe girl who trained with them," Sumi said before jumping after Kai, slashing her katana vertically.

Back where Hiroshi and Lloyd were searching, the only ones left for them were Cheng. Cheng sat on the rooftops like a sly cat with his legs crossed. He kept a close eye on them and watched them walk around. Cheng stood up and did movements by generating lightning throughout his body and, in a quick second, aimed it at Hiroshi and Lloyd. Lloyd wasn't skilled in redirecting lightning just yet, so he dodged it by rolling behind Hiroshi, who controlled a large boulder to pop out of the ground and shoot towards the lighting. Once the two substances collided, it exploded like firecrackers.

A sudden shout of despair cried out from where the man landed, "MY CABBAGES!" he shouted running down the street for his dear life.

The group ignored him and Cheng realized this battle was getting them nowhere. They had already got two members on the team (Kenji and the Captain), so all they had to do was help it grow a little more. Cheng had his chance to escape while all the smoke was still around, so he took a run for it, successfully running away.

From where Sumi was battling, she and Kai paused at the large explosion the glared in their eyes. While Sumi was partially distracted by the fire, Kai spotted an opening and kicked flames at Sumi. Turning just in time, Sumi blocked the flames with the shield, but got pushed back into a stack of crates, allowing them all to fall on her. Kai beamed out of the area to meet up with Cheng.

Juniper on was still dueling large Kenji, and his only reliable source of water was the water in his water skin, and it wasn't enough it lowered every time he used it. Kenji kicked and punched a few fire balls, and Juniper blocked them off with ease, but was distracted by a final blow. While defending himself from the flame, Kenji sprang out of the blue and grabbed Juniper by the neck slammed him into a brick wall behind him. Juniper felt unimaginable pain in his back. The water that Juniper had control of, fell loosely through the air and splattered on the ground. Juniper groaned and gagged as Kenji started squeezing the face and neck of Juniper. Juniper kicked and squirmed, but it did nothing. Lifting his other hand, Kenji opened his mouth and a fiery light could be seen, forming in the pit of his mouth. Juniper watched in fear as the light grew and reflected off his eyes. However, Kenji saw the large explosion in the sky and knew that that was his signal to leave. Juniper looked at him with a looked of desperation, but it turned out Kenji that wasn't leaving without finishing the job.

Juniper watched in horror and noticed that some of his water that splattered was all over Kenji's arm that grabbed his neck. Juniper took in a deep breath and let out a sharp breath of air, allowing the water to spread and freeze Kenji's shoulders in blinding speed. Managing to lift his leg high enough, Juniper gave a devastating kick to Kenji's neck. Breaking free from his grip, he made a run for it, but before leaving, he waterbended a stream of water unto the back of Kenji. Kenji slammed into the wall and knocked him unconscious. Luckily enough for Juniper, he spotted a barrel of water and quickly stuffed it into his water skin, filling it up.

Hiroshi and Lloyd were on Cheng's tail, which was getting tired by the minute and they could both feel themselves getting closer to victory. It was until Kai came in. She climbed the roof beside him and winked at him, "Now!" she shouted.

As devised, Kai and Cheng both began to generate electricity and shot it at the two. Lloyd had no clue how to redirect lighting. He was going to train on how to do it before he came in the first place, so turns out the trip ruined it for him. To him, he was one step closer to dying. It was all up to Hiroshi now.

Using his earthbending abilities, Hiroshi stomped on the ground with both feet, one after another and placed his palm down, allowing a circular shape to go around the duo. He then spread both arms out and stomped ahead with one foot. A thick barrier closed around them and the lighting hit it multiple times allowing the dirt from the inside to fall like snow on Hiroshi and Lloyd.

Kai and Cheng both smirked at each other and jumped off the roofs unto the ground with ease. Running past an alley way, Kenji jumped out of it and ran along with them, and Zen followed shortly afterward. Running to their boat, they sailed off faster than ever. Their intentions were different this time, and for sure they weren't going to make things as easy. Things had just gotten serious.

After a few moments of quiet, Hiroshi let down his rock barrier. Not letting his full guard down, his eyes searched everywhere but they were nowhere to be found. He looked over at Lloyd who looks disappointed and hung his head. Sumi and Juniper then ran towards them, "Where are they?" Sumi asked before fully stopping.

"They got away…" Hiroshi said.

"Ugh." Juniper groaned.

The group stood together in silence and watched as the negative thoughts of this "war" overwhelmed them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4- Traits and Trades**

Hiroshi and his team were back on Ember Island. They always wondered if that the group of evil firebenders would always spring back up for another battle since they knew their location, but three weeks had gone by so far. No one came and there wasn't any news about the Solar Ashes either. However, around those three weeks, the teenagers got the chance to know each other a little more. Then again, not everything was so good. Lloyd had been most disrespectful to Sumi. It almost forced her to believe an evil spirit sent him to ruin her. Sumi, tried to make every moment of it fun, but couldn't with Lloyds constant bickering. Hiroshi had nothing but a dry wit, and not once had anyone seen him smile. Juniper on the other hand was intelligent, but very hot headed to the point where it seemed like an anger issue.

Hiroshi sat in bed and looked up at the ceiling, "I can't stand being here all day. I want to fight and get this prize."

"I'm actually happy we have a break. They seem pretty tough, we should start training." Sumi advised.

"I'll go anywhere as long as their sand, rocks, and mud. Besides, I don't need training." Hiroshi said quite sure of himself.

Sumi groaned and rolled her eyes, "Buzz kill…" she mumbled while looking out the window. Her eyes met Juniper who was with Lloyd bringing back food. Once walking inside the shed, Juniper shouted, "Food's here!"

To the sound of this, everyone hastily got themselves prepared for lunch. They all sat at a rectangular wooden table that had six chairs all around. One chair was on the each side of the short sides of the table, and pairs of chairs were on the longer sides. They all sat beside each other, leaving only two seats empty. They pulled the food out of the bags and placed them neatly unto the table. Uncovering each plate, steam and an amazing aroma rose form each dish.

Lloyd grabbed his all-time favorite food: smoked sea slug. Lloyd picked up his pair of chop sticks, and ate it slowly and properly, only trying to make it last. Hiroshi on the other hand grabbed whatever he could. He didn't know what it was, but he was willing to try it out. It couldn't be different from most of the Earth Kingdom food and it had been a while since he had something decent to eat. Sticking to his Earth Kingdom nature, he ate a few fruits and grabbed what appeared to be a sliced watermelon aside with some rice. It was an unusual mixture, but he didn't care.

Sumi and Juniper were the ones who seemed to be the most distant since their foods were mostly boiled and stewed at their tribe. Mostly everything here was fried, but Juniper wasn't afraid to try anything new. So he went straight in for it, grabbing whatever he could unto his plate. The group looked at Juniper with a sick look. They could all tell that by the end of this meal, he was going to explode. How could a boy so slim devour so much?

Lloyd got a clear look at what he had gotten and Juniper had over seven things on his plate! He had clams, ducks, crab, rice, fish, squid and a sea slug of his very own. Thanks to Lloyd, his sea slug was larger, "_As it should be,_" he thought.

Juniper ate his food pretty ravenously and didn't even get a chance to speak, which was what everyone else was doing. Hiroshi ate his food quite mannerly and avoided conversations by answering with simple one worded answers.

Lloyd looked at his the group and spoke after each mannered bite, "I miss my royal table at home. It's large enough to sit a whole band of people," he said before sipping his drink. He looked over at Sumi who sniffed her food and made a sick face by hanging her tongue out. This food wasn't really her choice, but forced to eat it anyway. Some things she enjoyed, some; she didn't.

After lunch the team was stuffed. They were all full and never felt better. The team got up and went into their bedrooms. A large map world map, which was made into frame, hung unto the wall above a large dresser. Hiroshi walked over to it and put crossed his arms, pretty much examining it. He nodded in approval and looked back at the team.

"Okay, this is our planner, locator; whatever..." he said being confused. "We will use this map to plan all of our attempts to catch the Solar Ashes and to track whatever else we need," he said before tapping his foot on the ground to have a solid rock, nail pop from the ground. He sharpened the end and used it like a thumbtack, placing it right over Fire Fountain city, "We will mark whichever place we have gone to because we know for a fact that these bad guys wouldn't returned to strike twice at a same area"

"What if they do?" Sumi asked.

Hiroshi stared at her slightly and glared back at the map. Fully ignoring her question, he realized this whole thing wasn't going to be so easy peachy. He walked to the map, "…anyone else have anything to add?" he asked.

"Well, I do know they'll only be going around the Fire Nation," Juniper said while raising his arm to speak as if he were in a class.

"What makes you say that?" Hiroshi asked crossing his arms.

"Erm, well…" Juniper said nervously, he never really liked speaking out his opinion much when it came to major important things like these. He always felt as if he'd say something stupid, "…they just started forming this _organization_—right?" he said.

"Get to the point, Juniper" Lloyd said pretty impatiently and tired.

"Alright, well, in order for them to let this organization of theirs grow, meaning they need more firebenders, Fire Nation people..." he said looking around to see everyone's faces, hoping they would all be quite impressed.

"That doesn't mean anything. Firebenders are already beginning to move worldwide," Lloyd added.

"Still, most are up here aren't they? Besides, I'm sure that firebenders wouldn't be moving _out_ of the Fire Nation so quickly if they didn't want world peace," Juniper said trying to make his statement understandable.

Hiroshi did nothing but give an immediate smirk, "Good point. Very impressive," Hiroshi said.

Sumi smiled over at Juniper. So far, to her he was incredibly smart and cute. She didn't know what else to say, but she quickly looked away as soon as his eyes happened to meet hers.

Lloyd sat back on his bed and closed his eyes to fall asleep.

"Lloyd, wake up. This isn't nap time," Hiroshi snapped looking over at him.

"So? I always sleep around this time," he said giving a look of disappointment.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but we're in the midst of another war here," Hiroshi said stomping on the ground allowing the bed to shake violently. The bed jumped and Lloyd hopped up in a quick second.

Sumi snickered and looked back at Hiroshi, "So where do we start?"

Hiroshi looked back at the map and ran his fingers through his brown hair, "Basically, all we know is to stay alert in the Fire Nation until further notice. It's too early to say anything else. But for right now, let practice fighting. Lloyd versus Juniper,"

Lloyd annoyingly dragged himself out of bed and hung his head while walking. While walking past, he purposely bumped Hiroshi, who gave Lloyd the most uncomfortable look he'd ever given him. Talk about a big cry baby. The rest walked after him and he stood outside with his armed crossed, "I'm ready," he said standing in a firebending form.

Juniper stood on the opposite side and went in a swift formation of waterbending forms. They both watched each other only wondering who would throw the first move. If anyone guessed Lloyd, they would be correct. He threw multiple jabs, allowing five large fire balls to launch toward Juniper.

Sumi and Hiroshi sat on a nearby bench of four, staring at the battle.

In shock, Juniper controlled the sea nearby him. A large wall of water formed in front of him as the five fire balls were extinguished immediately. Lloyd gave a look of disappointment and jumped high in the air propelling him to do a wide ranged kick. Juniper controlled the water and splashed it unto the fire, allowing it to quickly diminish.

Using the water that was in front of him, Juniper shot them at Lloyd. Lloyd quickly moved to the side and did a flip that brought a raging arc of fire out from his feet. The flame cut the water and Lloyd did other feats that caused powerful streams to fly his way. Juniper reacted quickly, but didn't know what exactly to do. Raising his arms to do whatever could be done; the water reached over his head and was large in width. Quickly bringing his arms down, the water flew towards the streams and extinguished them with a sizzle. Without warning, Lloyd saw himself being trapped in a body of ice. It was a thin layer, so Lloyd heated himself up and broke out with ease. Lloyd stepped back and led out a large breath of fire, letting hot air blow all around. Juniper raised a wall of ice and as the fire let down, Hiroshi stopped them.

Hiroshi stood up, "Stop, that's enough," he said walking in between them. "Lloyd, when you attack, you're too overconfident that your attack _will_ succeed. From the looks of it, you have the knowledge that only a strong attack can down your opponent...but it'll let you know that it only tires you out quicker. Juniper, you're very hesitant. I could tell that you're only worried about hurting the opponent too much...but what happens one day if your opponent tries to kill you?"

Instantly, Juniper thought of the encounter he had with Kenji. He hadn't told anyone after that battle, although he should've. It probably would've warned the team to keep their eye out for that deadly criminal.

"My firebending teach—Fire Lord Zuko always tells me I'm a great firebender" Lloyd reassured.

Hiroshi ignored Lloyd's comments and asked him a simple question "Is there anything you'd like to learn?" He said asking Lloyd. At that moment, Lloyd forgot about his battle with Juniper and his mind began to race with thoughts.

"I want to learn how to do generate and redirect lightning!" Lloyd said acting as if he were shooting it from his fingers. He looked over at Juniper, "…and Juniper can teach it to me!"

Junipers face looked bewildered, "What? How?"

"From what I know, firebenders have studied waterbenders and their fighting style. Something like using their opponents force against them? That's how we redirect lightning, which is something I _need_ to learn. Did you see how good those bad guys were with that technique?" He explained.

Juniper just stuttered and looked at him, "I—I don't know."

"Ah, come on. I already have the basics down. I'm one step closer to redirecting it; you can teach me," he said with a hopeful tone. Hiroshi and Sumi just watched, only waiting for Juniper's reply.

"I'm sorry—I can't." Juniper turned away and walked back to the inn. Lloyd, Hiroshi, and Sumi watched in confusion as he walked away. His reaction was strange alright, but everything happened for a reason.

Lloyd bit his lip, only wondering what he said wrong since it seemed to have been bothering everyone lately, "Was it something I said?"

Sumi watched him, "_Nooo_," she commented sarcastically. The group went in after him to spot Juniper on his bed looking at something. As he noticed them walk in, he quickly shoved it back in his bag,

"Juniper, what's going on?" Hiroshi asked.

"Uh, it's nothing. It's not important." Juniper said before throwing himself unto his bed. Hiroshi then realized; to prevent further awkwardness and Juniper's sadness, to just leave the situation alone until he's ready to tell them. Besides, Hiroshi wasn't so good in "mushy" moments like these.

Later that afternoon, Sumi and Lloyd spent some bizarre time with each other. It was pretty much their first time socializing together since the two never really spoke. Sumi looked over at Lloyd and looked around, "So…where are you from?" she asked looking at the other civilians around them.

"Fire Nation capital. My father is an admiral, mother is a post woman. What about you?"

"Water Tribe,"

"Northern?" Lloyd asked trying to get comfortable since everything was going well. Before Sumi had to chance to answer, he blurted out something quite disrespectfully, "If you are, good and not good, because the Southern waterbenders are really low ranked. Northern too, but they're a little higher. That's what I learned in the academy of course," he said before looking over to blood red face of Sumi.

Sumi glared over at him, "What?"

Sumi raised her arm back and smacked Lloyd sharply across the face, "Well what do you have to say for wanting a 'low rank' waterbender wanting to teach your lighting redirection when _he's_ not even a firebender!"

Lloyd held his cheek that turned slightly red and gritted his teeth, "What? I was only being honest!"

"Honest? You call that honesty? You're just brainwashed and ignorant!" Sumi commented before walking through the crowds of people who stared at them.

Lloyd sighed and threw his arms into the air and walked behind her, "What did I get myself into?" he groaned once again. Walking after her, he grabbed her arm allowing her to stop and turn around. Turning around, Sumi pulled her arm out of Lloyds grip. She watched him and looked straight down at the ground in disgust.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was rude…growing up in a war that has been going on for years is…hard. I'm sure you have your disgusting opinions about Fire Nation people too?" He asked.

"Like them being power hungry, mad monsters? Yes," she replied. She then looked up at the face of Lloyd that briefly became upset, but he put his head down in shame. He couldn't disagree with what had happened all these years and what happened between him and her. "I'm sorry—I guess we just need to…get use to each other as acquaintances and get over this war. It couldn't be _too_ hard," Sumi said, "We'll be on this trip together for a really long time."

"What makes you think that?" Lloyd questioned.

"This isn't going to be a piece of cake you know?" Sumi said giving a reality check to the spoiled firebender.

He put his head down in shame once more, "Well, I'm only doing it to make Lord Zuko proud of me."

"Seriously, not even for the people?" Sumi asked.

Lloyd shook his head, "Maybe my parents, but that's it."

Sumi's eyes squinted and looked at Lloyd in bewilderment. Maybe it was his Fire Nation background. If it was, it really messed him up as a person. Lloyd watched Sumi and her short long locks of hair that reached her shoulders. Lloyd looked at her, "So, you aren't a bender I see?"

Sumi simply shook her head.

"So you picked up a talent in sword fighting, huh?" Lloyd asked at least trying to socialize.

"Yeah, my parents never really thought I wasn't good enough since I wasn't a bender like my other siblings. So, I was sent to Kyoshi Island for my own training...also to protect the village incase anything. There was a huge conflict about me being a female warrior. I didn't really care though...it still hurts though. Other people look at me different now since I kind of...disobeyed tradition."

Lloyd looked over at her, "Benders are sometimes stronger than non-benders though, but good attempt."

Sumi watched him and rolled her eyes, "Ugh!" she groaned walking away without an answer. Lloyd sighed once again and followed her feeling like a fool. Sumi looked at Lloyd and watched him, "You know, you really have to think before you speak, especially to girls!" she said walking further ahead of him.

Later that night, all the teens were in their beds fast asleep. Hiroshi slept shirtless and silently, while Lloyd slept in his royal robe and pajamas, snoring lightly. Sumi on the other hand tucked herself in bed perfectly to protect herself from the light draft the fled in from the window above her bed. Juniper, the only one who wasn't asleep, had on a pale blue vest and old dark blue shorts the reached his knees. He reached in his bag that rested underneath his bed. Digging into it until he felt the bottom, he pulled out a picture of a man with a striking resemblance to him, his father. It was the object he shoved in his bag earlier that day. He watched it and let out a deep sigh. Grabbing a pillow nearest him, he placed it over his face. Slowly falling into slumber, the whole group was silently sleeping.

Strangely, outside of the house something swift and quick climbed the sides like a spider on a web. The woman wore a hooded shirt and had a mask that went alongside her mouth, covering her lips and nose. She had dark leather pants so black, that every light around her shined off of it, and dark brown boots. Her eyes were fiery gold and her expression looked dark and slick. Her hair was kept in a typical bun and on her sides in her holsters were sais. In her boot, she had a very thin and sharp knife impregnated with poison. Breaking in the inn without struggle, she didn't stop till her goal was completed. The open window which sat above Sumi held the very assassin over her. The assassin eyes smiled as she watched the overwhelming snores of Lloyd. Pulling out the knife in her boot, she pulled out a needled filled with a liquid substance used to knocking its victims unconscious.

Taking it, she pierced the skin of Sumi's arm. Sumi's eyes flashed open and looked up to see a woman over her. The assassin quickly restrained Sumi's arms with her feet, preventing her from moving. She then forced a cloth over Sumi's mouth preventing her from screaming any louder than Lloyd's snores. Sumi struggled till she became weak, but felt something weird engage in her. She felt tired, and unable to move. Soon, everything around her began to fade and get darker. Before she knew it, her eyes fully closed. Sumi was unconscious.

The assassin looked around at the other males in the room, one evidently looked from the Earth Kingdom, the other one was Fire Nation, and one looked similar to Water Tribe. She looked at Lloyd and could only feel a strong dislike to him, then quickly back at the waterbender.

"_Two waterbenders?_" The assassin thought. Which one was she supposed to take? Looking down at Sumi, she could feel in her gut that this was the right one.

She tied Sumi's arms together and wrapped a cloth around her head and mouth. She tied Sumi by her legs unto a rope, and descended her from the bedroom window. Soon afterward, the assassin jumped out like a cat pouncing for prey. Landing unto her feet swiftly and easily, she tossed Sumi over her shoulder and ran towards a motor boat she had out in the sea. Sailing away faster than a shark underwater, she made it out safely and just in time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5- Peasant Ransom, Part 1**

Sumi opened her eyes and all she saw was darkness. A piece of cloth was over her eyes. She didn't know where she was and she felt herself to be just fine except for a small pain she felt in her shoulders. She was in her night clothing. She was barefoot and had on shorts that reached her thighs and a backless top that tied around the top of her chest and. She felt herself sitting against an uncomfortable wooden chair. Her heart pounded like a drum, and could feel as if it were going to jump out of her mouth. She didn't know where she was or what to do. Suddenly, Sumi heard two female voices coming towards her direction, she heard a door clank open and she put her head down to make it appear that she was still unconscious. She heard females speaking and surely recognized one. One spoke with a very calm tone of voice and the other had a bold, confident voice. Sumi listened closely to what both of them had to say,

"Where's my money. I did what you asked and got you your water tribe peasant," the assassin spoke.

"I meant the male!" Kai said being filled to the brim with anger.

"You need to be more specific then," the assassin replied fearlessly.

A male walked in from behind the door and walked in between the girls, "Tell me about it,"

"Shutup, Cheng!" Kai demanded walking away with her arms crossed. Kai was enraged to the point where she could just about go and find Juniper herself. She despised him already and wanted him dead, because she also had a feeling that he'd hold her back on many things. The assassin, whose name was Kari looked over at Sumi who was strapped to the chair and back at Kai, "Well at least I got you one of them," she said not changing her face of serious expression.

Cheng bent over and looked straight into the covered eyes of Sumi by lifting her chin with his bent index finger, "She's a cute one. Keep this one alive, eh?" after saying that, Cheng felt the sharpest pain on his hand. He turned to see Sumi's teeth clenching down on his finger. He let out a yell of pain and pulled his hand away from her. He looked back at Kai whose face looked like she was proud he had gotten bitten. Cheng growled at her and held his hand, "She's all yours," he said before walking out the door.

"Rise and shine sleepy head," Kai said pulling the cloth off from around Sumi's eyes. She looked around and wasn't sure where she was. She looked over at the unmasked assassin who had taken her. She was pretty alright, but it was such a low down thing to do. The assassin was tall and had thin eyes with beautiful lashes. Her lips and nose were almost perfect and she had a glorious beauty mark above her lip.

Sumi turned her head back at Kai and glared at her, "Why are you doing this?" Sumi said with a misunderstood and frightful look on her face.

"Because I simply can and I _know _for a fact that all of those friends are going to come for you, especially that waterbending peasant," she said interlocking her fingers behind her back. "Growing up in this war, my family was basically right hand to Ozai. Now we aren't anything! I can't stand to live like this and neither can my family. We need to be powerful and happy again, and the only way that can happen is if we put them back in power—or better yet, get myself into power."

Sumi, with ease, slipped out the ropes that binded her arms and stood up quickly sending a spin kick to the face of Kai. Kai backed up, only making the kick miss her face by inches. Anzu, the assassin, jumped in front of Kai to put Sumi in her place, but Sumi quickly flipped over the chair and used it as a weapon to hit Anzu with it afterward. The delicate wooden chair broke over the back of Anzu allowing her to wince in pain. This gave Sumi the chance to crouch and give a low spinning whirlwind kick to knock Anzu onto her backside.

"Enough!" Kai shouted. Preforming some movements with her arms and legs, three large fireballs shot from where she was standing. Lucky enough, Sumi dodged all three by doing tumbles and flips back and forth.

"That's all you got? My brother's farts are hotter than that!" Sumi shouted truly believing she had insulted her.

"You're very talented for a non-bender. I'll give you that." Kai said.

"Yeah? You should see me on Fridays." Sumi smart mouthed. However, her confidence was soon over when she felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck. Sumi grunted and sealed her eyes shut in pain. She fell to the ground and groaned to see Anzu standing above her moments before she fell unconscious.

Morning came and the boys were up already, Juniper stood at the stove making hot tea while Hiroshi _tried_ to whip up some pancakes. The house was filled with a great scent that cleared the sinuses with just one sniff. The pancakes looked soft and fluff. The texture looked milky and beautiful. The boys couldn't wait to dig their hands in it. Lloyd was use to staying pampered, so he sat at the table only waiting for his dinner to be ready.

Lloyd looked at the chair beside him where Sumi would normally sit, "Where's Sumi? She's normally the first to wake up," Lloyd questioned.

"You're right. Well wake her up before she misses out on breakfast and it gets cold." Hiroshi said putting the pancakes on the platter. Lloyd sighed only hoping that Sumi wouldn't punch him for waking her up.

He walked up the stairs and stood at the doorway, "Sumi," he knocked. He looked at the bed and walked closer, "Wake up, Sumi" he said shaking the bed. Moving in to uncover the sheets, he noticed pillows resting on an empty bed, "Hiroshi! Juniper!" he shouted.

In a split second, the two were already upstairs to the holler of their names, "What's going—" Hiroshi paused in shocked watching the emptiness of Sumi's bed,

"Lloyd where's Sumi?" Juniper asked hoping it was some kind of prank.

"If I knew, you think I'd be standing here about to ask you guys the same?" They all looked at each other and rushed out of the doors. They went all around Ember Island asking numerous people if they had seen Sumi. Describing her very appearance head to toe, people said they didn't witness anything.

A few moments later an elder aged woman came forward to the group of young boys. She was short and a little stout, "I've seen that missing young woman before."

Hiroshi walked closer to the old woman and looked down at her, "You have?"

"Yes, she was yelling at that young man right over there," she said lifting up her trembling arm and pointing at Lloyd. Hiroshi and Juniper exchanged strange looks and continued to listen closely.

"Miss, this girl is a friend of ours and we really need to find her," Juniper said walking beside Hiroshi, "Do you have any idea where she might be?"

The old woman stared at the team only hoping not to disappoint their desperate high hopes. She placed her hand under her chin and thought really hard. She looked at Lloyd and then back at Hiroshi and took a deep breath. She opened her mouth and the answer the boys had possibly been waiting for was ready to show.

"No." she simply put.

Juniper felt like he had just be shot out of a cannon.

The old woman looked at their faces that were covered in dread, "But don't you handsome young men give up. She may need you," she looked at Hiroshi and looked at his brown eyes, "Smile a little more, honey. You're very handsome boys." After that, she bowed and walked away.

Sumi sat cuffed to a chair this time. She looked up to see Cheng sitting on the very floor in front of her eating an apple. He pulled out a sharp knife and sliced it into bite sized slices that he could swallow with ease. Sumi watched him and struggled to get out, but failed miserably.

"You did it. Kai is super angry. So she's going to kill your friends," Cheng said continuing to bite his apple.

Sumi gulped and thought about this war, her family, the boys, and the other happy civilians "Why not…just kill me now?" Sumi said only wanting to spare the life of the two boys.

"Not now, you're the bait." Cheng said getting up and walking around her. He walked behind her and put his arms unto her shoulders, "Y'know, I was actually thinking that Kai could spare you and keep you alive for me. Make you our personal slave or something," Cheng said getting closer to her next.

Sumi kept her face straight, but shot her eyes to the corner. She breathed quite uncomfortably and struggled to set her wrists free. Nothing worked. Sumi tried her hardest to keep back the tears from pouring out of her eyes. Her life basically flashed before them at the moment and found it difficult to keep it in. Tears began to roll down her face once she closed her eyes and faced down. Kai then walked in, opening the door furiously. Kai's appearance had changed and she had red and black Fire Nation armor to top it off. She looked very similar to those who worked at the boiling rock. Like always, she had a devilish smile on her face, but this one seemed to be more indulging, "Get ready. They're coming, and when we're finished with them, no one will be able to face us." She clutched her fists and looked at Cheng, "Then we can assassinate the Fire Lord."

Joben ran into the inn with some very urgent news. While walking into the inn he saw Lloyd, Juniper, and Hiroshi all in the living room in a depressing state. They all sunk into their seats, but whatever Joben was about to tell them would get their attention.

"Boys, a letter has arrived from The Solar Ashes, they have Sumi! The news is spreading like wildfire and people are afraid to do anything! It hasn't reached the palace yet, so people don't know what to do."

Hiroshi, Lloyd and Juniper all jumped to their feet in shock, "Well—what does it say?" Hiroshi demanded clenching his fist.

"It says that they're in an airship, over The Fire Nation Captial!"

Lloyd's eyes jumped wide in shock, "My home!"

"They haven't left off yet, they're stationed and they're waiting until daybreak tomorrow to take lift off and if you guys aren't there by then, they'll kill Sumi and proceed on with their sinister plots. You guys have to do something!" Joben said with a voice of hope.

The team all agreed to go there but the one question was how were they going to get their so quickly. Planned, Joben took them outside and showed them an Eel hound, a large four legged reptile with large muscular legs used for sprinting and swimming. It was a blue-green color and has scales with a pale blue belly. Juniper had always wanted to ride one of this these. All three got prepared and dressed in their normal clothing, and took their weapons, including Sumi's katana. Jumping unto Eel hound, all of the three sat with each other,

"Good luck." Joben wished. They all nodded and the Eel house shot off into the sea swimming and slithering as quickly as ever.

It had been hours, and the ride had been silent until someone actually decided to speak. The sun was already lowering and the skies were already getting darker. Using some of his abilities, Juniper tried to use them to speed them up whenever he got the chance. Of course there came times where the Eel house just stopped for some rest, which angered Lloyd.

"How could she have gotten kidnapped when we all slept in the same room?" Lloyd pointed out.

"That doesn't matter. We have to save her and destroy that airship somehow. We get directly overseas and then bam, we strike it down." Hiroshi instructed.

"We can't fly an airship. At least I can't," Juniper assured.

"We'll find a way," Lloyd said pretty determined to get this job done.

It was already early hours of the next morning. Hiroshi stood awake while Juniper and Lloyd both fell asleep. It was pretty awkward—guys sleeping on one other. They were only very tired. So it was understandable. The sun was beginning to rise as the moon was starting to fall. The sky appeared a navy- fuchsia color. The sun rose higher and higher into the air and day break arrived, turning the sky golden yellow. Hiroshi woke both Juniper and Lloyd. They watched as they entered the capital since they passed the fire gate a few miles back. While sneaking unto shore, there was a part of the nation's Capital, it was a large deck that only allowed Fire Nation ships to sail in, but there were very few guards. Juniper, Hiroshi, and Lloyd all stared at each other,

"No problem. I can get us passed" Lloyd said walking towards the entrance where they could all walk through with a slight sign of swagger.

Juniperus walked behind him and grabbed his shoulder to prevent him from going any further, "Are you sure?"

Lloyd nodded without hesitation. If he felt so strong about it, maybe there was nothing to fear. Besides, they were trying to stop the Solar Ashes, who could refuse? Almost entering the Fire Nation Plaza by walking in purposely, they were caught like suspected.

"Hey!" a Fire Nation guard shouted with a deep voice. He walk towards them, "Where are you going?"

"Well, uh—" Juniper started off, but he was interrupted by Lloyd's quick thinking. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a paper declaring his pass through here he had a while back with his father. Since his father worked for Fire Lord Zuko, they had access in and out of this capital once they showed this paper. The guard looked up at Lloyd and back down at the paper in suspicion, "You may go. But I got my eye on you."

Lloyd grabbed his paper and put it back into his pocket. Juniper and Hiroshi followed after but was stopped by the same guard, "Where are _your_ papers?" the guard asked putting his arms out to stop them. He could tell they weren't from the Fire Nation and thought they could be terrorists.

Lloyd, "Oh no they're with me. We have an important job to do," Lloyd explained.

"Well if they want to get past they need papers too," the guard ordered.

The three just stood in their places and blankly stared at each other. They didn't know what to do after that, so Juniper just told the guard the truth, "Look I don't know if you'd understand this, you see, there's a small organization called The Solar Ashes prowling around? Yeah, they want to overthrow your fire lord, restart the war, and kill our friend, but the only way we can prevent that, is if you let us through. So, what'd ya say!"

The guard just blinked his eyes at the group while they waited for an answer, "No. The Fire Lord will take care of it. He sent out a letter to other nations so they can come together and stop it."

"OH COME ON," Juniper said putting his hands into claw like positions veins began to pop around his forehead area and looked out of control, "THAT'S US!"

"Sure," the guard said, "and so are the other hundreds of people that are now in prison trying to break through here, you can make a hundred and one if you'd like"

Juniper could feel a ticking in his head like a bomb were about to go off. Soon afterward a large explosion happened as if he had just lost it. As soon as the guard turned around and began to walk away, Juniper leaped through the air with his hands in a cuffing formation that could just go about his neck, but he was caught just in time by Hiroshi and Lloyd who tried their very hardest to hold the slim teen down, "Who knew you ha, _oof_, such a bad temper?" Hiroshi stated slightly getting hit in the stomach by Juniper's flaring arms.

As he was placed down to relax. Juniper looked at Hiroshi and Lloyd with a disgraceful look, "Um…" he rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry?"

The group, at this point, was saddened even more and each felt a strong knot in their stomachs. That was until Lloyd spoke out, "I'll just go and see if I can rescue Sumi," Lloyd said speaking unto them independently so the nearby guards won't hear.

"What! By yourself, are you crazy?" Juniper asked.

"No, but look at the skies, it's already day break, I must find that airship!"

Hiroshi nodded and gave a manly handshake to Lloyd, "Be safe, oh yeah, and give this to Sumi," he said tossing her scabbard with it's katana to him. Lloyd took it and tied it around his shoulder to beneath his opposite underarm so it could rest on his back. Before starting off, he gave his group a salute.

Lloyd ran past the guard that gave him permission to go in. Lloyd had on what he usually wore, which was a brick red hooded shirt with a dark red vest over it. He wore a black belt around his waist that also kept his brick red pants in place along with his dark brown boots that had a thick gold stripe that rode over the toe box. He too also came equipped with dual swords, both strapped to his side in one scabbard. Running non-stop, he slowed down once he reached a large warehouse. That was far on the sides of the city. He turned to look at how far he was from it and a picture of his parents unfolded in his head, "I'm coming, Sumi. I'm coming mom and dad."

It was the airship base of Fire Lord Zuko. It was the only place that held airships, and it went underground. The only way the airships would come up, is through a large containment in the ground that would slide open mechanically. It was in an open area, far away from the city to avoid any disruptions or danger to the civilians.

Running in the warehouse, he stopped to look at the female guard who had looked stripped of her armor. All she had on were rags. Her body was on the floor lifelessly behind the counter. Hopefully she was only unconscious. He gasped in shock and something by her neck caught his eye. Removing her hair out the way, it appeared to be a needle. Lloyd then thought back at what he had seen after calling Hiroshi and Juniper when he saw Sumi's bed empty; he remembered seeing a similar needle before they left, but never thought to mention it. He gasped and realized that he was probably one step closer to rescuing Sumi.

He ran through the doors that led to a corridor. Running through till he reached the end, he ran into a large caged elevator. Jumping inside of it, he closed the doors and waited patiently until he fully reached the bottom. Through the spaces of the elevator, Lloyd could see guards laying lifelessly everywhere. Lloyd couldn't believe his eyes. His heart pounded like thunder, and he couldn't believe he was going to put his life on the line for someone he barely knew. Then again, somewhere in his gut, he felt like that he had to.


	6. Chapter 6

**Peasant Ransom, Part 2**

Sumi walked with Cheng with her arms in front of her. Cheng held her arm quite delicately and he couldn't help but smile at her.

"You know, it's a shame. You're really pretty," Cheng said confessed quite disappointed.

But Sumi thought she could use this advantage to escape, she stopped walking and looked at him, "You know what, Cheng—I could say that same for you. You're really cute and it's a shame that Kai gives you the third wheel, huh?" she did a movement with her head that managed to flip her hair over her shoulder.

Cheng blinked at her in shock and looked to the sides to make sure no one was watching what he was about to do. He grabbed her by her shoulders and watched in her eyes, "I say that all the time!"

"You should think to yourself for a moment. You could be a great leader…" she paused gulping, "I'd love to join you."

Foolish Cheng looked at her and couldn't believe it. Reaching in for a kiss Sumi quickly thought of something to make him stop, "I just saw someone, let's get out of here," Sumi lied.

Cheng watched up and down the hallways and held her arm running into the control room. He knew how to fly a ship since he was once a Fire Nation solider. Sumi watched him and looked out of the windows of the airship. Looking closely at what appeared to be a small person, was Lloyd. Sumi gasped and tried to block the face of Cheng turning to that direct, so when he did, she'd be in his way. Once he operated the controls, the ship began to fly off. The ground above them slid open into two separate parts, wide enough to let a whole fleet of airships out. Sumi watched up as the ship shook and flew off.

Lloyd ran to the ship and grabbed the very catwalk platform attached to the underside. Climbing onto it fully, he found an entrance inside the airship by walking up some latters.

Entering the ship, Lloyd did nothing but hide on every corner. He searched rooms left and right until he rightly came across the correct one. Sumi was inside of the room tied to a pipe that ran through the wall. While Cheng was far out in front of her, he was facing Lloyd's very opposite direction. He looked up at the airship only examining metal pipes. Lloyd squatted down and crawled into the room. Sumi turned over to look at him and she gave out a smile of relief, she mouthed Lloyd's name and couldn't help to get the smile off of her face. Moving closer to the cuffs that restrained her, he let out both his fingers, allowing a high fiery flame to shoot above it like a blow torch. Placing the flame near the chains, it began to melt through, soon allowing Sumi to break free.

Cheng then spoke and turned around, "So, Sumi, I was listening to what you were saying and—" but was shocked to see Lloyd rescuing the very damsel in distress. Pausing for a moment his facial expression turned very bitter, and shot out his fist allowing a large stream of fire to come out. Easily blocking the flames, Lloyd did a high kick and placed his leg down extremely quick, blowing out the flames like a candle on a cake. Sumi then slid underneath Cheng's legs, tripping him and allowing him to hit his head. He fell and was immediately knocked out.

Sumi looked overhead as the ship began to continue flying without a pilot, "Where's Juniper and Hiroshi?" she asked remembering her friends.

"They're down there." He said pointing at the very area they were almost above.

From below, Juniper tapped the shoulder of Hiroshi who was facing the sea. He looked at Juniper and then looked up to see the very same airship Lloyd looked down from,

"Hold on, okay?" Hiroshi seriously instructed. He earthbended and the ground below trembled. A rough pillar of earth shot up from below them both in blinding speed.

"Why—ahhhhhhhhhhhh" Juniper shouted moments after shooting into the air like a rocket with Hiroshi.

The two reached so high above the around everything below them looks like ants and Juniper could've swore he touched the clouds. Just as the two reached above the airship, they landed on the very top quite roughly and rolled unto their stomachs.

Hiroshi quickly got up and helped Juniper upright, "Come on, we have to get Sumi and Lloyd," he rushed.

Sumi and Lloyd watched the very two as they shot unto the top. Just when they landed, they heard a loud thump. Sumi pulled Lloyd as she ran out the room and the two attempted to find a safe way out of the ship. Once turning a corner, Sumi and Lloyd did a sudden stop allowing Lloyd to slip and fall unto his hindquarters. Two soldiers stood in their way, but the two didn't hesitate to spring into action, defeating them with ease. Unfortunately, fumes of fire could be heard along the halls, thus alarming others.

Sumi and Lloyd ran until they saw a ladder and an opening that led to the top. Sumi climbed up first and opened it. Coming out first she kneeled and helped Lloyd up. Her hair and his blew the same direction due to being on top of a speeding air balloon,

"Be very careful," Sumi warned.

Turning around, both of them spotted Juniper and Hiroshi. Hiroshi walked towards them and rested his hand onto Sumi's shoulder, "Thank the spirits you're okay," he said cracking a smirk for the first time. They all turned to Juniper, who was crawling on the surface of the air balloon and refused to stand up,

"No, no, no. Not until we're over water!" Juniper shouted.

Sumi, Lloyd, and Hiroshi all looked at each other trying their hardest to hold in their laughter. The air ship was massive in size and could at lease hold over 50 others on top. Flashing back to reality, the group tried to devise a plan on how they were going to escape. In the midst of devising a plan, out came Kenji; the large Fire Nation threat who broke out of the Boiling Rock prison and Anzu; the assassin. This time, the only part covered was her mouth. Her long brown pony tail flared in the wind like a flag. It was in a bum previously, but Sumi had knocked it out with the beat down she had given ealier.

"Her; she's the one who kidnapped me," Sumi said stepping in front of the group.

Anzu without hesitation jumped into a battle and pulled out her dual sais, striking down at defenseless Sumi. Lloyd quickly grabbed Sumi's katana that he had over his back and ripped I free,

"Sumi!" he called right before tossing it to her. Sumi quickly turned around and grabbed the handle of the sword and spun, allowing the katana to swish out of its scabbard and come in contact with the sais. The two began to clash weapons and over again until they drifted off into their own battle.

Kenji stood over the young boys and watched them with his arms crossed. He looked at Juniper and back at Lloyd and Hiroshi. He looked away and began to walk towards Juniper, the waterbender he never got a chance to kill back at Fire Fountain City.

Lloyd's teeth chattered, and looked at Hiroshi, "I can't do anything. There's no earth and I left my rocks at the inn!" Hiroshi said with worry.

"Try something!" Lloyd suggested with even more fear as Kenji stepped closer to Juniper.

Hiroshi panicked and stomped unto the airship, attempting metalbend a trail of metal to zoom underneath Kenji's foot to throw him off. Easier said than done, nothing even happened.

"What was that?" Lloyd asked.

"Why don't you do something then?" Hiroshi argued back.

Juniper looked up and watched Kenji as he came closer. Juniper raised his arm and moved it as if he were slapping the air; a stream of water from his water skin came out and began to whip around Kenji's arms and legs. Kenji rocked back and forth only trying not to get hit, and whenever he did, it stung. Juniper did a final move, making the water strengthen and push Kenji back. However Kenji threw his fist, making flames fly out and overwhelm the poorly controlled water. Juniper had to get up and fight back, or else he was a fried waterbender. Juniper rolled out of the way to the sight of hot blazing flames rushing towards him and they flew right past him.

Hiroshi and Lloyd watched Kenji and thought the best thing to do was a sneak attack. Unfortunately for them, Kenji wasn't stupid enough to leave his back turned to them. He spiraled a 360 turn and did a kick, allowing a wide ring of fire to emerge in all directions. Lloyd watched the large flames fly at him and brought his arms up, attempting to knock them out. Bringing his arms down a little too late, the flames threw him back, knocking him back into Hiroshi.

Juniper, fully standing up, controlled the water with the slow movements of his body and made the water trip Kenji onto his back by sweeping it under his feet. Easily defeating him, Juniper restrained him to the top of the air balloon by freezing the water around his hands and feet to the very air balloon itself.

Sumi, still fighting Anzu, rolled between the legs of her opponent. She did a quick kick, allowing her leg to lift from where she was; to the face of Anzu. Feeling a full blow to the face, Anzu fell back, knocked straight into dizziness and didn't bother getting up. Sumi regrouped with her team and soon afterward Juniper ran with them.

Much to their surprise, Kai jumped up through the top and looked at the group with an ugly look of anger once she had seen her allies all knocked to the ground. All of a sudden, the airship made a sharp turn allowing almost everyone to lose their balance,

"CHENG!" Kai shouted with all her might. Sadly, Cheng was knocked unconscious and no one was driving the airship. The airship descended lower and lower and was soon above the sea, but still at a very high altitude.

Enraged Kai generated lightning of her own by doing its very procedure which seemed to be slow twirling of her arms. She brought her fingers to the center of her face and pointed it like shooting an imaginary gun. In an instant, lightning shot at the group. Lloyd jumped in front of the group and threw a punch, causing a long stream of fire to come out. The fire fed to the lighting and only caused the lightning to grow. Juniper pulled Lloyd from behind and threw a ball of water at the attack, allowing it to cause the water to burst and kill the charge of lightning. The group silently watched Kai and she watched back at them in a look of treacherous anger. She was furious and her jaws were locked. She quickly lifted a finger up again and the group ran and jumped off the air balloon before she even got the chance to breath. A long blue light flew overhead the teens just after jumped. They all shouted for their very lives, Sumi's shrieking being the highest.

While falling from the high altitude above the clouds they all watched the sea come closer and closer,

"This isn't going to be a good landingggg!" Lloyd shouted.

"Juniper, do something!" Hiroshi shouted through the thick noise of the air that roared through their faces.

Juniper's mind raced with ideas on how to land them safely through the water, but like Hiroshi said, he hesitated. He gulped and looked at the group with a face of disappointment. They all watched him and looked back down. Holding hands, they all watched as the water came in closer and closer. Their faces pointed down as their legs showed upwards like if they were diving. Once they came in contact with the water, they heard a large splash. Surprisingly, they were all still conscious and they all swam to the surface for their lives. The airship above them flew a great distance away from the city and their dropping spot and it crashed into the sea shortly afterward.

Juniper spun while in the water and allowed a snake of water to twirl him in mid-air. Moving his arms, the water that twirled around him shot out and made a flat surface of iceover the water. Sumi, Hiroshi and Lloyd climbed unto it quickly leaving Juniper to jump unto it last. To ensure their safety, he made sure the water stuck little to their clothes so they wouldn't fall off. Lastly, Juniper froze his feet to the ice as well. Juniper swirled his arms around and propelled them like a fan and in an instant, they shot off towards the nearest land. They raced towards the land and reached it within minutes. The four of the teenagers stepped unto land shivering from the ice that stuck to their wet clothes. The guard ran over to them after witnessing everything that had happened.

He watched Lloyd and looked back at them, "What were you children doing!" the old guard shouted, "You could've been killed!"

The guard looked at the recognizable face of Lloyd and felt as if his trust had been dishonored. Aall the teenagers quickly told them their story and what had happened. The guard found it hard to believe and looked at them with a face of disbelief,

"There's only one way to know if this is true. Fire Lord Zuko _must_ see you."

A wide smile came across the face of Lloyd while the others seemed to be surprisingly shocked.

Kai, who was in the water, seemed to be driven mad as her face was struck with apathy. She looked next to her as Kenji, Anzu, Cheng, and two other Fire Nation soldiers came up beside her. Anzu then began to swim away,

"Where do you think you're going?" Kai questioned roughly.

"My job is done, I did what you asked. I didn't sign up to get thrashed around like some ragdoll by little rebels," she said back with hardly any discomfort.

"There's more money where that came from Anzu! All you have to do is stay with us. The ultimate prize will be far worth more than just a couple bags of cash." Kai watched mischievously. Anzu swam back with them and they all planned their escape. Somehow, the captain rode in on a grey motorized boat with a Fire Nation insignia on it. All Fire Nation criminals jumped unto the boat and sped away in haste, just in time before other Fire Nation guards had time to examine the water themselves.


	7. Chapter 7

**Meeting the Fire Lord**

Unfortunately, Sumi, Hiroshi, Juniper, and Lloyd were all cuffed. They walked throughout Caldera City feeling like actual criminals, being surrounded by four guards that walked along with them independently. Lloyd thought it was one of the grossest feelings ever and even recognized a few faces that stared back at him. He tried his very hardest to hide his face by letting his hair hang, but sadly it wasn't long enough. They walked, all chained to one another, in a slow pace.

Once they had finally reached inside Fire Nation Palace, their eyes dressed the palace in amazement. They all watched each other and knew that this was their chance to clear everything up. Walking more happily than ever, mostly because there weren't any pedestrians to see him, Lloyd couldn't walk any slower. He kept bumping into the guard in front of him every time he made a halt to walking.

Sumi, who was looking at her cuffs, and what it appeared to look like, was her trying to break free from them. She shackled them back and forth. She was handcuffed earlier as a hostage; she didn't need to be handcuffed again.

"Those are made of steel, it's impossible to break out of those," a guard spoke.

"Break out? I'm trying to reach an itch!" Sumi said turning her head violently back at her arm, allowing her hair to sway with her.

Entering the doors of the Fire Nation throne, Juniper, Hiroshi, and Sumi watched in shock. The only one familiar with the place was Lloyd. The room was filled with large pillars that towered the dark ceiling above them with mysterious dark red curtains that bathed the sides of the walls. The room was dark indeed, but the only light that glowed was the flames that sat on the opposite side of the entrance. In front of those flames were a large throne, and in that throne chair was Fire Lord Zuko. He lifted his head only showing his amber colored eyes that glared like a cat and dark shining hair that was tied back into a bun to support his crown.

Seeming so content, the others felt warm protectiveness come over them. However it was slowly shattered to the words of the Fire Lord,

"Who dares interrupt my break!" Young Zuko shouted out roughly.

The guard muttered and spoke, but no words seemed to come out until a guard behind him pushed him forward,

"Uh...Fire Lord Zuko, we caught these four teenagers committing serious tomfoolery around on a stolen airship. They claim that it was captured by the Solar Ashes and that one of the criminals had kidnapped their friend, this very young lady," the guard turned to point to Sumi, "So they went to save her. We just need to clarify it with you, _because_ they claim to be the four chosen ones for the capturing task of the Solar Ashes. The invitees," he spoke out.

"Hi, Zuko!" Lloyd interrupted in excitement, startling everyone else in the echoing room.

Zuko peeped closer and then realized who it was. Zuko rested his arm on his arm rest and played with his growing in beard, "Thank you guards, I shall speak to them alone. Release them from their clutches," Zuko said quite roughly with his raspy tone of voice.

The guards released the group from their cuffs and walked away, leaving them to massage their aching body parts. They were still moist since their clothes had dried from their crash in the water, they smelled quite uncomfortable too.

"So these are your teammates? I was actually hoping for some older people," Zuko said looking at Lloyd.

"Thank the spirits that didn't happen. I'd be the youngest one," Lloyd smirked back.

Juniper was actually quite surprised that Lloyd had known Fire Lord Zuko, which meant that everything he had been saying was true. Juniper was actually the one to believe something until he saw it. Sumi didn't find anything of it. She just thought he was quite lucky and had a bone to pick with Zuko about Lloyd's education anyway. Hiroshi could've cared less.

Zuko watched the other three. They weren't quite the royal type, but he continued to look at the point on how far they made it in the first place. He watched each of them and back at Lloyd.

"Oh!" Lloyd said remembering the right thing to do, "This is Juniper…that's Sumi…and him, there, that's Hiroshi," he said pointing to each of them.

Zuko nodded with a smile and waved at Sumi. Sumi looked up and her miserable face somehow took on a smile and waved quite wildly back at him, "Is there anything you guys can do."

Juniper stepped forward, "I'm a waterbender…speaking of water, I ran out back there."

"Earthbender," Hiroshi simply spoke crossing his arms.

Sumi spoke up in an outstanding tone "I'm not a bender, but I do have a dependable katana…that I lost my scabbard to," she said sinking back down.

Zuko watched the group of teenagers and watched the state of their clothes and appearance, "Lloyd, lead our guest to the bath house so they can clean their selves and their clothes could be thoroughly scrubbed."

The teenagers loved the sound of this and as much as he didn't want to admit, Hiroshi did too. He hadn't washed his clothes for quite some while. His clothes did smell quite musky by the way, but he really hoped everyone would just ignore it.

Zuko looked at Sumi and called her up. She walked up to him and he asked to only see her katana. Watching it, the katana was in pretty bad condition and looked like it could break anytime soon if stricken in the wrong position. He took it for himself, only promising her that he'd hold it for her once she had gotten back. Fully placing her trust in him she agreed. She was the only one who was still in her night clothes, which consisted of her backless shirt and shorts and bare feet! She felt quite incomplete being around the other boys who had their usual clothing on.

After a long wait, the boys and returned from their showers. Juniper, Hiroshi, and Lloyd had come out in their garments freshly washed and dried. They felt like they were sleeping in a very bed while walking. This definitely lightened up Hiroshi's mood because he looked so different for some reason. His skin was definitely lighter and so was his clothes,

"Where's Sumi?" he asked.

Sumi was still in the bath house. She was all dried up. Her hair was washed and tied up into a turban-like towel and she sat in her robes waiting for her night clothes to arrive. Within minutes, a female servant came in with a pile of clothes. Sumi checked it and her face looked bewildered, "Excuse me, this isn't mine."

"From Fire Lord Zuko, young lady," the servant smiled.

Sumi gasped, not only to the sight of new robes, but to the sight of a new katana that shimmered in her eyes. The handled was dressed with black as a bright blue water tribe pendant hung from a string and it came with a beautifully brown scabbard with beautiful markings. Sumi took the clothes and placed them in front of her, only imaging how she would look with it before trying them on. It was a lot better than her last one and it fit her more for the battle field. Her top was short sleeved and on her arms were armlets that were black and gray. Along with it was a skirt with black thin pants that covered her legs. Her boots were tall and brown and reached her knees. She dressed herself and walked out with her new outfit. With their eyes dazzled, they stared at her with such shock. Sumi took her hair out of a bun and shook it freely, "Hey guys," she said placing her new scabbard around her waist.

Zuko walked in and watched the four teenagers, "You guys look ready. Like your new clothes Sumi?" Zuko asked.

Sumi couldn't help was smile and words flew out with joy, "I _love_ it Fire Lord Zuko, thank you so much…and the sword—if there's anything I can do to pay you back—"

Zuko laughed, "Its fine."

Zuko led the team to a large table that could sit about 30 people. In amazement they were all sat in front of large plates that held beautifully cooked food. Other than it looking beautiful, it looked very tasty as well. Out of the curtains that blocked a room in the back came out Mai, the young fiancé of Fire Lord Zuko yet to be crowned Fire Lady. She sat at the table with Zuko with her raspy tone of voice; two of a kind.

"Good morning, Zuko. Who are these—" but paused and sighed to the sight of Lloyd, "…Lloyd what are you doing here, did he do something bad again?" she asked.

Lloyd rolled his eyes and his expression lacked his usual enthusiasm, "Hi to you too, _Mai_."

Zuko chuckled and looked at Mai and kissed her lightly on the cheek, "These are the invitees,"

Mai's faced changed from emptiness to embarrassment, "Oh, nice to meet you." She said quite expressively. She introduced herself as many of them did the same back. For one, she quite had a love for Sumi. She loved the fact that Sumi was a young girl just like her, fighting for what she believed in although she wasn't a bender. Mai left afterward to attain some work since she was now in line for the throne as Fire Lady. Things wouldn't be as less hectic when she wasn't in line.

When the food was able to be eaten, the teenagers ate as if they were starving. Technically they were, but the most ravenous eater was Juniper. Once they were finished they all were taken into bunks for their slumber. It had been a pretty long night since the three boys had slept so they were the most tired, but Sumi's body ached her and she just found it the most comfortable to just lay down and read a few scrolls that informed the reader about flowers and pastries.

When the group had finally woken up they met Joben who was in the front yard with Zuko. All the teenagers went outside to see him and greeted him with warm welcomes. He was actually relieved to see that the children were okay. Hiroshi looked at Fire Lord Zuko and back at Lloyd,

"So, now that we're here, maybe Zuko can teach you how to redirect lightning since he's you're firebending teacher, huh?" Hiroshi commented.

"What…?" Zuko said bewildered.

Lloyds eyes flew open and he jumped in front of Zuko, "Nothing, Zuko, just that I told him I really wanted to learn how to redirect lightning from you."

Juniper then said something afterward, "No…you said that he was teaching you but this invitation thing interrupted your classes,"

"Lloyd…is there something you aren't telling us?" Sumi said as she crossed her arms and tapped her feet.

Zuko watched them all and eyed Lloyd, "I'm sorry guys, but—I don't teach Lloyd any firebending. He's nothing but my palaces mere paper boy. His farther is an admiral and works alongside me and his mother is a posts woman, she has access to my top certified, private letters. It's just a favor to keep him occupied and stay out of trouble."

The group watched him with their arms crossed and disappointed faces. Hiroshi couldn't help but scoff. Lloyd rubbed the back of his head, "Uh…yeah,"

"So you lied just to add to more of your spoiled and rich self?" Sumi commented with an ungrateful tone. The boys next to her weren't so serious about it. Maybe it was a girl thing.

"No! I just wanted…to…uhh," Lloyd paused and thought about why he lied in the first place, "I just wanted to be cool, you guy's seemed to hate me."

"Wow, Lloyd! You're so cool. We want to be just like you!" Sumi commented sarcastically.

Joben walked in between them, "That's enough, children," he said separating them while they continuously glared at each other.

Hiroshi and Juniper stared at each other and back at Fire Lord Zuko who stared at them. Later, Zuko and the group sat outside by the pond to only talk about what had happened on the airship and how Sumi became abducted. They told Zuko everything and unfortunately, he found the Solar Ashes a very dangerous threat. Zuko did say that if they were ever to delay and give the Solar Ashes any time, they could do just about anything disastrous. Zuko didn't know much about these criminals, but he did hear stories and they weren't so pleasant to hear. So he kept it to himself, thinking he might horrify the others.

Joben looked at Sumi was sitting on the floor beside him, looking at the turtle ducks in the pond. He placed his hand on her head, "Well I hope you weren't too scared,"

"Well, I thought I was going to die. I did everything to get out of there…until Lloyd came and saved me," She looked at Juniper and Hiroshi too, "Thanks guys…" she said getting up to hug every one of them. The atmosphere was good, and they pretty much liked it this way. They all watched each other and chuckled. It was a good experience. Sumi thought about telling Juniper that the assassin had only made an error and that Kai actually wanted Juniper's head on a stick. However, she kept that little note to herself.

They all paused after a while and then Joben quickly got struck by something,

"Oh yes! Juniper I received a letter for you," he reached deep in his cloak and pulled out a scroll with a water tribe insignia on it.

Juniper looked up, "A letter?" he said grabbing it. Opening it, his eyes flung open in shock.

"What is it?" Hiroshi asked quite curiously.

"It's…my mom," he said shocked.


	8. Chapter 8

**Mother Dearest**

A woman named Pat lived in the Northern Water Tribe with her two children. She had 4 in all, but two were already living their own lives elsewhere. She understood that, because she faced the fact that her children were growing, but she dearly hated to see them leave. They didn't technically walk out of her life, but that's what it felt like. Now she had her youngest twins living with her, but nearly got a heart attack when she realized one of them was gone with her invitation from the Fire Lord. Her youngest son; Juniperus was missing and his sister said she didn't know anything. Pat knew deep down she did.

Pat was an average heighted woman who tied her short hair in a ponytail and wore a long blue robe. She kept it plain and simple. Over that she had her heavy coat which she wore; she knew that soon she'd have to take it off when going into the Fire Nation. Her friends from home prayed for her and hoped the spirits would watch over her once stepping foot into the Fire Nation. Pat was an extraordinary healer. Her waterbending abilities weren't as well since the teachings changed pretty late for her, but she knew a few tricks.

Pat walked out of her house and walked down through the bridge that led to the royal palace of Chief Arnook's. Her daughter, Ember walked right beside her. She had lovely blue eyes and long brunette hair that reached her back,

"Mom, where are you going?" Ember asked.

"To kill your brother," she replied sternly.

Ember stopped in her tracks and watched her mom with the most shocked look as if she were about to cry, she paused, "Cool! Can I come?"

"No honey, you have to take care of the bearded cat and polar bear dog. I'll be back."

She sighed and looked back at Hahn, a cocky water tribe boy with large ego. Great, now she had to fend her own against this guy.

Nevertheless, Pat was gone in moments. She climbed aboard the Water Tribe ship and sailed toward the Fire Nation.

_-Three Days Later-_

Juniper stared at the scroll and looked up in disappointment. Fire Lord Zuko watched, "Come on, your mom is coming to see you. You should be happy."

Juniper forced a smile and nodded but soon made an excuse to use the bathroom afterward. Walking up the stairs that led inside of the Royal Palace, Juniper made it into his large guest room where there were three bunk beds. He sat on a bottom bunk and threw himself unto his pillow. He covered his face and thought about what to do. Should he run away? Give himself up to the Solar Ashes? All of those options were better than facing his mother.

Hiroshi then walked in afterward, "This isn't the bathroom," he said searching in his bag.

"Hiroshi I have something to tell you." Juniper blurted out.

"What?" Hiroshi turned looking at him quite surprised.

"…I'm not supposed to be here," Juniper said nervously.

"What do you mean?" Hiroshi said lying on a bottom bunk across from Juniper.

"The letter to capture the Solar Ashes was sent out to my mother—I just took the letter for myself, forged some signatures and got myself signed up for this mission…" Juniper said quite simply like it was nothing.

Hiroshi watched him and sighed, "You do know you could get into trouble, right?"

Juniper nodded and sighed desperately. Shortly afterward Sumi and Lloyd stood by the doorway with shocked faces. They heard everything. Turns out they were incredibly good at eavesdropping.

"Please tell me you guys didn't hear that," Juniper winced.

"Okay. We didn't hear that," Sumi lied.

"Yeah, we did" Lloyd shouted instantly, "Looks like I'm not the only liar," he freely said feeling good about it, "But don't worry. We won't tell anyone," Lloyd said sitting on a nearby rocking chair. Lloyd then got a call about his parents being in the palace. Lloyd was in major excitement and wanted to see his parents. Lloyd offered for the group to see his parents, but just as they were all about to go, Juniper got a call from Joben,

"Juniper, your mother is here. She demands to see you right away," he gulped.

Juniper felt his chest thump with extreme fear. He didn't know what to do at this very moment and felt like he needed to just run away as far as he could. Hiroshi and Sumi looked at each other and devised a plan to keep one another company. Hiroshi agreed to go with Lloyd and Sumi would go with Juniper. Sumi walked with him and smiled.

Being led by one of the Royal Palace Servants to where Juniper's mother was, they were led outside and she came into view. Sumi looked over at Juniper and smiled, "She's pretty,"

"Yeah, that's because she doesn't look like a fire breathing dragon when she's yelling at me."

Sumi chuckled and the two continued to walk to Pat, whose face seemed to be more and more bright, "Juniper!" she cried. She ran towards him and hugged him and rubbing the back of his head. Juniper hugged her back tightly. He did, indeed, miss his mother very much and felt bad after taking her letter. He couldn't have imagined how she felt after seeing him missing.

"You aren't…angry at me?" he asked legging back from their hug.

"No honey—Angry doesn't BEGIN TO COVER IT!" she grabbed him by his ear and sat him on a nearby bench. Sumi watched shamefully from behind and held her hands up to her chin. Juniper winced and pulled his head away from his mother's fingers,

"Ouch. Mom!"

"Don't '_mom'_, me!" she said placing her hand on her hip and fixing the shoulder bag around her, "What made you think it was okay for you to take that invitation for yourself!"

"Mom, I—"

"I don't want to hear it! Honey, do you know how dangerous this is? Reports have gotten out already on how dangerous these firebenders are. You could've been killed!"

"Mom, I did it to protect you!" he shouted back, "Mom, you're in your 50's! You really think that you'd be able to take on these firebenders? All you can do is healing and your waterbending skills aren't as powerful,"

Pat sighed and looked down, "You're just like your father…" she said bitterly, "That's what got him killed."

As his mother said that, Juniper didn't answer. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach and looked down trying to fight back tears. Sumi then stepped closer, hoping to stop the awkwardness. She cleared her throat, causing Pat to look. Her eyes met a beautiful southern water tribe girl who happened to look sort of familiar. How could that be when she's never seen this girl in her life?

"Hi, dear," Are you on this mission too?" she questioned.

Sumi nodded.

"Well, how does my son do?" She asked hoping something negative would come out.

"He fights superb. His skills are great," Sumi said smiling. Pat frowned and looked at Juniper whose eyes glowed with confidence and some unsteadiness.

"You're lucky someone try to kill you," Pat said rubbing her temples away from stress.

"One does actually. Her name is Kai, she hired an assassin to kidnap Juniper and kill him, but she got me by accident. She got us mixed—" as she turned to look at Juniper, the smile on her face quickly vanished from witnessing the expression of Juniper's. Looking at Juniper's eyes, Sumi could feel them burning through her, "Uhm, I was joking about that…ma'am,"

Pat's eyes were more dreadful than Juniper himself and she stood up with much fear, "That's it! We're going home!" Pat cried out dramatically. She grabbed his arm, but Juniper tugged his arm back. It was like having a tug of war on his arm and Juniper couldn't stand it.

"Mom!" he shouted, "Stop!" Pat released his arm in shock and looked at him, "I'm going to have a word with the Fire Lord and Joben so say goodbye to your friends,"

"So what—you can be on this mission instead and hurt yourself?" Pat didn't answer. She put her face down and told Juniper that enough was enough and that this was too dangerous for him and that she didn't want him getting hurt. It was her so-called "responsibility".

Juniper stayed seated and Sumi sat beside him, resting her hand on his shoulder. She didn't know how he felt, but she felt sorry for him. Hiroshi and Lloyd came out shortly afterward. They were told everything and they felt terribly bad for him. It sucked that an element was being pulled apart from their group. Hiroshi had his usual face on but showed some sympathy.

Joben and Pat had both stepped out to take a small walk throughout town since both of them were new to the Fire Nation Capital. Plus, Fire Lord Zuko was busy and didn't have time to answer them. So walking around Pat looked at some of the nearby fruits at the fruit stand. Walking over, she grabbed herself an apple, and brought it with her own money. Suddenly, she was bumped into by a thick-bearded man and long haired woman running with a basket of warm bread and money. They had bumped into her so hard that they nearly threw her off her feet. Joben jumped behind her and aided her to standing straight,

"Someone, stop them!" a shop owner shouted. Every civilian watched in panic and people barely knew how to react.

Pat rolled her eyes and saw a wooden bucket of water by a nearby ally. Pat reached her arms out and tossed them in the air as If she were throwing something behind her. The water in the pail lifted and curved unto the ground. She froze the water causing the two robbers to slip and fall unto their sides and crash. Surely enough they were taken by Fire Nation guards. They were taken to the Fire Lord to decide their consequence and once they were out of sight, everyone all over applauded.

Pat looked at the ground and there laid her dirty apple that she could no longer enjoy. She watched the apple and could only think about what a waist it was. From behind she heard a whistle and a man tossed an apple to her in return of her help. Unfortunately, Pat couldn't catch and only watched the apple fall through the air just before Joben came in, catching it with one hand. Handing it to her, she smiled, "Thank you."

The two walked off only to have a personal conversation of their own.

While Hiroshi was with Lloyd, Sumi, and Juniper the four were still outside talking amongst themselves and trying to have a good time before Juniper was taken home. Hiroshi couldn't help but notice the two prisoners being held by two Fire Nation guards.

"Look, prisoners." Hiroshi looked up, and found it terribly frightening that the thick-bearded man had a striking resemblance to him. The man as well looked up and met Hiroshi's eyes. He looked down, but quickly shot them back up in surprise. The woman beside him followed his eyes and met Hiroshi's as well. Suddenly, her face quickly switched from a miserable look to an incredibly dumbfounded look. Hiroshi was in an extremely awkward position and his heart was beating till the point where it hit his chest. He looked away and only glanced up to see the two get out of view. Had never felt this way, it was bizzare.

"Are you okay...?" Sumi asked as she noticed that he was distracted by something.

Hiroshi then looked back and forced quite an unusual smirk, "Oh yeah, I'm fine," he lied.

"My mom wouldn't ever try to take me away. My parents were the ones who put me on this mission in the first place," Lloyd added.

"How great for you," Juniper said sarcastically.

"I got this letter straight from Kyoshi Island. I was visiting at that moment. I am a water tribe girl, but I'm sure they wouldn't send it there," Sumi said.

"What about you Hiroshi?" Sumi asked, but she broke off in shock. Hiroshi was nowhere to be found. He was there a minute ago. All three of them went off to search for him. He was nowhere to be found outside of the large palace. So checking thoroughly inside the castle, they found him in front of the throne room. Before Juniper had gotten a chance to call his name, Hiroshi snuck inside behind the curtains that hung from the ceiling to the floor. It was so long that it covered his feet. Before the three could be spotted, Juniper, Sumi and Lloyd did the same.

"What are you doing?" Lloyd chuckled, "This is kind of fun,"

"I'm not doing this to break rules, now shh," Hiroshi said as he peaked through one of the spaces of the curtains. Below him Juniper's head popped out, and below him was Lloyd, then it was Sumi's face right after. They all listened closely to the arrested male and female be interrogated by the Fire Lord.

"What are your names?" the Fire Lord started.

The bearded man started; "I—I am Hachiro...and this is my wife...Hitoshi" he spoke startled.

"Where are you two originally from?" Zuko questioned some more.

"Earth Kingdom, you're honor."

"What makes you two think you both can come here and steal from my city's merchants and owners?"

They two didn't answer.

"Since it was only food and nothing of serious thievery I shall only make you two stay in prison overnight. When afternoon hits, you two are free to go since these are your first times getting in trouble in the Fire Nation. But mark my words, if I ever see you too getting in trouble in this Nation again, you will be banished from here. Understand?"

They nodded.

"Do you have any children or anything that we should look after?" the Fire Lord asked.

"No," the Hitoshi answered.

More of the interrogation began and they admitted to stealing before and being thieves. Sadly for them, more information came in about them stealing numerous times before from the Earth Kingdom and that the Earth King had penalized them enough times to count on all of his fingers _and_ toes. The four teenagers ran out shortly afterward to avoid being interrogated themselves and to stay out of trouble.

By the time they reached outside, Juniper's mother was outside with Joben. They had had a long.

Joben and Pat turned to see the teenagers walking in before them. Joben looked over at Pat, who put her dead down as if she were given disappointing report. Joben walked over to the group,

"Lloyd, Hiroshi, and Sumi—come with me. Juniperus and his mother need some time alone," he said resting his hands on their backs.

As they walked off Juniper turned to look at his mother. It was in the afternoon and the sun was setting. The sky was beautiful with a mystic reddish, orange color. Juniper looked at his mom, who really wasn't as tall as he was. She was a few inches shorter than him, and he looked down at her.

"Juniper, darling," Pat said as she rested her hand unto his shoulder.

Juniper placed his head down and his eyes peaked up at her.

"I'm letting you stay..." she said turning her head away.

Juniper looked up in astonishment and smiled, "What?" he chuckled, "Seriously?"

She nodded.

Juniper began to start laughing, "Oh my goodness! This—this is unbelievable!" Juniper leaped unto his mom, giving her a full blown embracement.

"Look," she said hugging him back then looking at him straight in his eyes. She didn't let go of his arms, "You were right honey. This job, _isn't _for me...destiny has led _you_ here. I've noticed, and I also see you've made some really good friends, and your right...I maybe am to old for this," she laughed. "Keep them safe, and you're coming back home alive to me when this mission is over. I know it," she paused. "Just like your father," she chuckled even more. "Brave, brilliant, and an amazing young man. He would want you to do this. Protect your friends Juniper and show those firebenders what a great waterbender you are. Protect our nation..." she said before finally breaking into a full blown hug. She cried resting her head on him.

"I'm leaving tonight," she sighed rubbing off her tears.

Juniper looked saddened for two reasons. His mom had never done anything compared to what just happened and because she was leaving and it was unknown when he'd see her again. He for sure would miss her. He fought back tears and won, it was only at times when he felt like a waterfall would come flowing out his eyes,

"I'll come with you mom," he said placing his arm over her shoulder and walking down to the travel boat with her.

"So...your friends; they're about your age?" She said looking up at him.

"Yeah, Lloyd's seventeen, Hiroshi's eighteen, and Sumi's sixteen."

"I really like Sumi, she's pretty. Try to marry her, I want beautiful grandkids."

"Mom! That's gross, don't you have enough anyway?"

"No."

As Juniper's mom left, she boarded an ostrich horse carriage that would take her to the travel boat. Going inside she waved at her son and smiled back. A few tears left her eyes and she turned around.

Juniper smiled back and a tear rolled down his cheek. He stood there, watching as the carriage rolled out of sight. When his mother was nowhere to be seen, he walked back, slowly thinking to himself. Within moments, the moon was already out and he was back at the palace. He walked inside, entering his room soon afterward. Hiroshi was already in bed, and he quickly sat up, bumping his head on the roof of the bunk bed,

"Ouch!—how everything go?" he said rubbing the particular pained area.

"She let me stay," Juniper replied.

Sumi cheered. She slept on a separate bunk just to sleep on top...but not with Hiroshi. Lloyd was on top of Juniper's bunk, and clapped,

"That's awesome. But why do you look so disappointed?" Lloyd asked.

"I'm not; it's just the conversation my mom and I had. She said that this was destiny and that she believed I could do it." Juniper crawled unto his bed, laid back, "Besides, I'll miss her a lot."

"We all miss our parents," Sumi said smiling. "So you aren't alone."

Hiroshi looked over at the group and turned around, "Easy for you guys to say. Now turn out the lights. It's getting late..." he said facing the wall.

"Ah come on, you can't say you don't miss your parents and its only 8:00 o'clock!"

"Whatever. I'm going to sleep," Hiroshi said.

Juniper sat up and looked at everyone else's who looked full of questions. It concerned them, but they all knew how Hiroshi was. Asking him open up wasn't going to be easy. Therefore, they shrugged it off. It was still early and there was enough time for them to go out. Before each of them left, they blew out the candles that kept the room alit,

"Goodnight, Hiroshi..." Sumi said being the last to come out. She kept her eyes placed on his body that was wrapped in his sheets. Slowly, she placed her head down and walked away from the door to follow after the boys.

Hiroshi, laid on his bed staring at the wall. He stare was blank, but it was a saddened, desperate confused stare. It was filled with pain and questions, and he just wanted to sleep it off.


	9. Chapter 9

**From the Ashes**

Kai hadn't let go of what happened to her and her teammates last time. She was so upset; she practically blamed Cheng for it all. Everything he did irritated Kai, and, surprisingly Cheng began to feel guilty. In their new base, which was in a warship, they set sail to the Earth Kingdom. Their plans were undecided and they felt as if they were going in circles.

Kai was sitting her very own office and was looking at the map that sat on the table flat in front of her. Within seconds, she took the ink brush and furiously scribbled all over it.

"Ugh! I can't think!" she said roughly scooting out of her chair as it screeched, rubbing against the metal floor of the boat. "It all seemed so much easier. Ugh!" she groaned.

Out of the blue, she heard a soft knock on the metal door. She quickly fixed her hair and relaxed, trying to not give away her frustration.

"Come in," she said dryly.

As the door opened, Cheng walked in. Kai's face looked even more miserable just by the sight of him and she rolled her eyes. Standing up she walked towards him with her bottom lip hanging lowly.

"What do you want?" She said crossing her arms with her back shown to him.

"I-I just came to apologize," Cheng said rubbing his head.

Kai's face lit up with surprise, and couldn't believe it. She inhaled and exhaled, quickly put on a mask of disappointment and turned around.

"I feel really bad that my actions caused us to lose the enemies. I mean, when I thought...Sumi actually liked me, I was fooled. I was too gullible."

Kai looked up at Cheng with a raised eyebrow. As she watched Cheng up close, she noticed something about he, he was actually attractive.

"Uh, it's okay. We'll catch them next time...I just really need help with figuring where to go next," Kai replied.

Cheng was more surprised than Kai was of him, and his expression showed very clear. Kai even noticed. She guessed that her bitterness towards him never really made her see it. However, when he apologized, it hit a soft spot. She stuck out her arm and offered a handshake. Once she stuck out her arm, Cheng jumped back in fright, shielding himself. Opening his eyes, he looked at Kai and stood straight. He examined her hand without touching it.

"I'm just offering you a handshake, Cheng!" Kai shouted.

"Remember the time you almost—"

"It's not like that."

Cheng reached in and actually grabbed her hand, shook it, and quickly pulled away. He backed up by the door way.

"So...we're good?" he questioned.

Kai nodded.

Cheng chuckled nervously and backed up into the hallway. Running, he ran into Kenji, the giant. Cheng fell back and fell on his behind. Kenji, with ease, grabbed him by his shirt and lifted Cheng to his feet.

"Uh, thanks..." Cheng said nervously.

Kenji walked towards Cheng and embraced him. Cheng could feel every bone in his body crunch. Cheng whimpered and tried to break free, but every struggle was a failure. He was placed down and he feel once again. Anzu stood outside of the ship and watched nearby village come in.


End file.
